Philosophy: (2 of 3) Postmodernism – Three-pronged crisis

More Postmodernism (see the last post to get started or jump in here).

Nacho wrote, “What those basic themes do is really open up a three-pronged crisis (Norman Denzin): 1) A crisis of Representation (we cannot capture direct lived experience. Such experience is constituted textually. This renders the connection between experience and text problematic also). 2) A crisis of Legitimation ( if we have a crisis of representation, how do we legitimate validity, generalizability, etc.), and 3) A crisis of Praxis (how do we act, how do we effect change in society if its nature is essentially marked by textuality).”

1 – Wasn’t this covered in Kant’s first critique (Pure Reason)?

2 – see comment for 1.

3 – Wasn’t this covered in Kant’s second critique (Practical Reason) and the Groundwork for a Metaphysics of Morals?

4 – the crisis of beauty (I just made that up, so that I could toss in Kant’s third critique – on aesthetics, or Judgement)

I know I’m being a bit flippant (I just spent 4 months working on Kant and have come to appreciate the guy, that’s all). And now I childishly demand that any philosophy be explained in its relation to Kant. 🙂

So I was giddy when Wilber brought Kant up in the audio that I’m listening to in relation to Truth (first critique), Goodness (second), and Beauty (third). Wilber [with some of my interpretation here] held that these are the great questions of philosophy, going back to Plato’s early dialogues. Wilber even brings in the Great contemporary German philosopher, Jürgen Habermas to make the point that in some philosophy one of these three is emphasized at the expense of others (science champions only Truth, objective, physical Truth; Postmodernism breaks Truth and Goodness down into Beauty, notions of aesthetics). We need to understand the breadth and depth of each of these, however, without denying the legitimacy of the other two. In other words, it looks like it’s a crisis of its own making. (and these guys need to reread Kant – kidding, maybe, sorta)

Oh, and I wanted to toss in this quote from Ken Wilber: (my thanks to Zen Unbound for the link)

Just as rational modernity previously exhausted its forms and gave way to aperspectival postmodernity, so now the postmodern itself is on a morbid death watch, with nothing but infinitely mirrored irony to hold its hand, casting flowers where they will not be missed.

You’ll have to read the full essay for the context, but Wilber seems to support some of my preexisting views on Postmodernism (always a good reason to read it :)…