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The Contradictions Of Postmodernism

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Postmodernism has a great impact to the western ideology and thoughts. It is a challenge to all human disciplines, which are often considered to be a search for ultimate truth. The purpose of this essay is to examine whether postmodernism is a leap forward or back in epistemology and ideology. In order to do that, evaluation on how postmodernism has challenged the mainstream reality and the contradictions postmodernism embodies will be discussed. Postmodernism is an ambiguous term to define. In the context of this paper, postmodernism is understood as in the work of Jean-Francois Lyotard and Michel Foucault. It should be clarified that postmodernism is a broader area than that covered in the works of the above two writers.
Before the postmodernism …show more content…

The existence of reality, or objective truth, is independent from human representation. It is true that all people are bound by their cultural background to have an objective view, hence impossible for human to achieve objectivity in this sense. However, it is possible for human to reduce its influence and get as close to objectivity as possible.
Thirdly, scientific knowledge is supposed to be superior to the other narratives as it provides objective knowledge that is independent from the motive, gender or race of the person who makes such claims. It is objectively true even the person who claims it has a certain social background. Newton’s Law of Physics would still be a breakthrough for science even if it is brought to the world by people other than Isaac Newton. And Einstein’s Relativity will still be plausible is he is not Jewish. The truth of scientific knowledge depends on only the empirical results.
Lastly, postmodernism does not provide a solution for interaction. For example, where does postmodernist stand on the dispute between Israel and Palestine? Both Jewish and Arab populations are justified to believe that they are only protecting their own people. However this leads to nothing but war and chaos in the Middle

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