Society Has Entered a New Postmodern Age and We Need New Theories to Understand It. Assess This View.

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Society has entered a new, postmodern age and we need new theories to understand it. Assess this view.

Postmodernism is a movement that has emerged since the 1970’s. Postmodernists argue that we are now living in a new era of postmodernity where image and reality are indistinguishable and we define ourselves by what we consume. They believe that this new kind of society needs a new kind of theory to explain it, modernist theories no longer apply.

Postmodernists believe that there are no sure foundations to knowledge. Postmodernism is essentially the belief that everything is conceived by man; there is no objective truth; no right no wrong; no good no bad. Everything we believe right now is based on a fabricated objective truth formed by collective opinions and agreements. Post modernists believe that many, if not all, apparent realities are only social constructs, as they are subject to change inherent to time and place. This view is known as anti-foundationalism, and it has two consequences. The first of these is that the Enlightenment project of achieving progress through scientific knowledge is dead – we cannot guarantee our knowledge is correct; therefore we cannot use it to improve our society. The second consequence is that any theory such as Marxism that claims to have the absolute truth about creating a better society is just someone’s version of reality, not the truth. These types of theories are known as meta-narratives. Postmodernists believe these meta-narratives have also helped to create oppressive totalitarian states that impose their version of the truth on people, e.g. the former Soviet Union where the state attempted to re-mould society on Marxist principles which led to political repression and slave labour camps.

The approach that postmodernists take is known as relativist – all views are true for those that hold them and all accounts of reality are equally valid. The ideas of...