{"id":805,"date":"2005-11-10T01:43:00","date_gmt":"2005-11-10T01:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2005\/11\/philosophy-1-of-3-postmodernism-chronology-and-meaning\/"},"modified":"2005-11-10T01:43:00","modified_gmt":"2005-11-10T01:43:00","slug":"philosophy-1-of-3-postmodernism-chronology-and-meaning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2005\/11\/philosophy-1-of-3-postmodernism-chronology-and-meaning.html","title":{"rendered":"Philosophy: (1 of 3) Postmodernism – Chronology and Meaning"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Amongst other topics, there has been a recent surge in talk on Postmodernism here so I thought I should dedicate a post to it. I would love to see comments with links to further reading (as I know all of this could baloon into endless exegesis on our parts, and I for one don\u2019t have time for that!)<\/p>\n

First read the third comment here for Nacho\u2019s full intro to Postmodernism<\/a>. My own scattered comments can be found elsewhere, but aren\u2019t worth the cross-linking. For now I just want to ask questions, base in my own (still developing) theoretical framework.<\/p>\n

First, the chronology bit gets me. When is \u2018Modernity<\/a>\u2018? Did it begin with Luther, Newton, Kant? It may seem trite, but I find the chronology issue important. We in the West champion the \u2018newest\u2019 thing; so to say that Modernity is old and something new has come along is a nice rhetorical way to sell your philosophy (even if it just happens to be recycled Sophistry \u2013 side note: the ID theorists argue that their theory is a new <\/span>paradigm, exposing weakness in the \u2018old Darwinian\u2019 theory \u2013 eek). <\/p>\n

I prefer to look at modernity, romanticism, postmodernity, etc as attitudes<\/span>, some prevalent in certain times, but none necessarily preceding others.<\/p>\n

Nacho wrote, \u201cMeaning is about the relationship of signs to other signs\u2026 signs have no direct referent that exist in an independent object world.\u201d Merleau-Ponty argues against Saussure, stating that signs must have some contact with the world through us, and thus have meaning in relation to that world (not just to other signs). I hit my head and emit a sound, that sound need not display any <\/span>particular relationship to other signs to be understood by coworker. My sound will have meaning if it coheres with the lived situation, neither available language nor the physical situation seems to determine meaning. I can hit my head and can coherently say \u2018ouch, ught, oooft, eeesche, f*ck, etc\u2019, but not something like, \u2018Alice\u2019. Language (like the physical situation) sets boundaries, but it seems incapable of providing much in the way of meaning<\/span>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amongst other topics, there has been a recent surge in talk on Postmodernism here so I thought I should dedicate a post to it. I would love to see comments with links to further reading (as I know all of this could baloon into endless exegesis on our parts, and I for one don\u2019t have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nPhilosophy: (1 of 3) Postmodernism - Chronology and Meaning<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Amongst other topics, there has been a recent surge in talk on Postmodernism here so I thought I should dedicate a post to it. I would love to see\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2005\/11\/philosophy-1-of-3-postmodernism-chronology-and-meaning.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Philosophy: (1 of 3) Postmodernism - Chronology and Meaning\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Amongst other topics, there has been a recent surge in talk on Postmodernism here so I thought I should dedicate a post to it. I would love to see\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2005\/11\/philosophy-1-of-3-postmodernism-chronology-and-meaning.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"American Buddhist Perspectives\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2005-11-10T01:43:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/7907151-113161606906153092?l=americanbuddhist.blogspot.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Justin Whitaker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Justin Whitaker\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2005\/11\/philosophy-1-of-3-postmodernism-chronology-and-meaning.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2005\/11\/philosophy-1-of-3-postmodernism-chronology-and-meaning.html\",\"name\":\"Philosophy: (1 of 3) Postmodernism - Chronology and Meaning\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2005-11-10T01:43:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2005-11-10T01:43:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/abfb8f851f671638c4c7536b963f9da9\"},\"description\":\"Amongst other topics, there has been a recent surge in talk on Postmodernism here so I thought I should dedicate a post to it. I would love to see\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2005\/11\/philosophy-1-of-3-postmodernism-chronology-and-meaning.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2005\/11\/philosophy-1-of-3-postmodernism-chronology-and-meaning.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2005\/11\/philosophy-1-of-3-postmodernism-chronology-and-meaning.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Philosophy: (1 of 3) Postmodernism – Chronology and Meaning\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/\",\"name\":\"American Buddhist Perspectives\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/abfb8f851f671638c4c7536b963f9da9\",\"name\":\"Justin Whitaker\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/817b6fba8ae056aaff4f9bdc84347d72?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/817b6fba8ae056aaff4f9bdc84347d72?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Justin Whitaker\"},\"description\":\"I am an almost-life-long Montanan; a baptized Catholic; an ardent Atheist; a practicing Buddhist; a lover of Wisdom. I have a BA and almost an MA in (Western) Philosophy from the University of Montana-Missoula, an MA in Buddhist Studies from Bristol University, UK, and I am currently working on a Ph.D. in Buddhist Ethics at the U of London. My main academic foci are early Buddhist ethics and Kant (odd combination, I know). I also study Western ethics, Tibetan Buddhism, Theravada, Comparative philosophy, and Environmental ethics. I also like photography, running, drinking wine, and eating peanut butter (often in that order).\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/author\/justinwhitaker\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Philosophy: (1 of 3) Postmodernism - Chronology and Meaning","description":"Amongst other topics, there has been a recent surge in talk on Postmodernism here so I thought I should dedicate a post to it. I would love to see","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2005\/11\/philosophy-1-of-3-postmodernism-chronology-and-meaning.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Philosophy: (1 of 3) Postmodernism - Chronology and Meaning","og_description":"Amongst other topics, there has been a recent surge in talk on Postmodernism here so I thought I should dedicate a post to it. I would love to see","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2005\/11\/philosophy-1-of-3-postmodernism-chronology-and-meaning.html","og_site_name":"American Buddhist Perspectives","article_published_time":"2005-11-10T01:43:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/7907151-113161606906153092?l=americanbuddhist.blogspot.com"}],"author":"Justin Whitaker","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Justin Whitaker","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2005\/11\/philosophy-1-of-3-postmodernism-chronology-and-meaning.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2005\/11\/philosophy-1-of-3-postmodernism-chronology-and-meaning.html","name":"Philosophy: (1 of 3) Postmodernism - Chronology and Meaning","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#website"},"datePublished":"2005-11-10T01:43:00+00:00","dateModified":"2005-11-10T01:43:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/abfb8f851f671638c4c7536b963f9da9"},"description":"Amongst other topics, there has been a recent surge in talk on Postmodernism here so I thought I should dedicate a post to it. I would love to see","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2005\/11\/philosophy-1-of-3-postmodernism-chronology-and-meaning.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2005\/11\/philosophy-1-of-3-postmodernism-chronology-and-meaning.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2005\/11\/philosophy-1-of-3-postmodernism-chronology-and-meaning.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Philosophy: (1 of 3) Postmodernism – Chronology and Meaning"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/","name":"American Buddhist Perspectives","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/abfb8f851f671638c4c7536b963f9da9","name":"Justin Whitaker","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/817b6fba8ae056aaff4f9bdc84347d72?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/817b6fba8ae056aaff4f9bdc84347d72?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","caption":"Justin Whitaker"},"description":"I am an almost-life-long Montanan; a baptized Catholic; an ardent Atheist; a practicing Buddhist; a lover of Wisdom. I have a BA and almost an MA in (Western) Philosophy from the University of Montana-Missoula, an MA in Buddhist Studies from Bristol University, UK, and I am currently working on a Ph.D. in Buddhist Ethics at the U of London. My main academic foci are early Buddhist ethics and Kant (odd combination, I know). I also study Western ethics, Tibetan Buddhism, Theravada, Comparative philosophy, and Environmental ethics. I also like photography, running, drinking wine, and eating peanut butter (often in that order).","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/author\/justinwhitaker"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/118"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}