Explaining Postmodernism; Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault

278 Pages·2014·5.892 MB·English

by  Stephen R. C. Hicks

Explaining Postmodernism

Explaining Postmodernism
Skepticism and Socialism from
Rousseau to Foucault
Expanded Edition
Stephen R. C. Hicks
Ockham’s Razor Publishing
First Edition published in 2004 by Scholargy Publishing
Expanded Edition published in 2011 by Ockham’s Razor Publishing
© 2004, 2011, 2014 by Stephen R. C. Hicks
All rights reserved
14 15 16 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Expanded Edition Second Printing Tenth Anniversary Printing
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data pending
Hicks, Stephen R. C., 1960-
Explaining postmodernism: skepticism and socialism from Rousseau to
Foucault / Stephen Hicks.
p. 276 cm.
Includes bibliographic references.
Includes index.
ISBN: 978-0-9832584-0-7 (cloth)
ISBN: (paper)
1. Title. 2. Intellectual History—Modern. 3. Socialism—History. 4.
United States— Intellectual Life—20th century. 5. Education, Higher—Po-
litical aspects. 6. Art—History
Printed in China
This book is printed on acid-free paper
Contents
Thesis: The failure of epistemology made postmodernism possible, and the failure
of socialism made postmodernism necessary.
List of Tables and Charts v
Chapter One: What Postmodernism Is
The postmodern vanguard 1
Foucault, Lyotard, Derrida, Rorty
Modern and postmodern 5
Modernism and the Enlightenment 7
Postmodernism versus the Enlightenment 14
Postmodern academic themes 15
Postmodern cultural themes 18
Why postmodernism? 20
Chapter Two: The Counter-Enlightenment Attack on
Reason
Enlightenment reason, liberalism, and science 23
The beginnings of the Counter-Enlightenment 24
Kant’s skeptical conclusion 27
Kant’s problematic from empiricism and rationalism 29
Kant’s essential argument 32
Identifying Kant’s key assumptions 36
Why Kant is the turning point 39
After Kant: reality or reason but not both 42
Metaphysical solutions to Kant: from Hegel to Nietzsche 44
Dialectic and saving religion 46
Hegel’s contribution to postmodernism 50
Epistemological solutions to Kant: irrationalism from Kierkegaard 51
to Nietzsche
Summary of irrationalist themes 56
ii
Chapter Three: The Twentieth-Century Collapse of
Reason
Heidegger’s synthesis of the Continental tradition 58
Setting aside reason and logic 61
Emotions as revelatory 62
Heidegger and postmodernism 65
Positivism and Analytic philosophy: from Europe to America 67
From Positivism to Analysis 70
Recasting philosophy’s function 72
Perception, concepts, and logic 74
From the collapse of Logical Positivism to Kuhn and Rorty 78
Summary: A vacuum for postmodernism to fill 79
First thesis: Postmodernism as the end result of Kantian 80
epistemology
Chapter Four: The Climate of Collectivism 
From postmodern epistemology to postmodern politics 84
The argument of the next three chapters 86
Responding to socialism’s crisis of theory and evidence 89
Back to Rousseau 91
Rousseau’s Counter-Enlightenment 92
Rousseau’s collectivism and statism 96
Rousseau and the French Revolution 100
Counter-Enlightenment Politics: Right and Left collectivism 104
Kant on collectivism and war 106
Herder on multicultural relativism 109
Fichte on education as socialization 112
Hegel on worshipping the state 120
From Hegel to the twentieth century 124
Right versus Left collectivism in the twentieth century 125
The Rise of National Socialism: Who are the real socialists? 130
Chapter Five: The Crisis of Socialism
Marxism and waiting for Godot 135
Three failed predictions 136
Socialism needs an aristocracy: Lenin, Mao, and the lesson of the 138
German Social Democrats
Good news for socialism: depression and war 141
Bad news: liberal capitalism rebounds 143
Worse news: Khrushchev’s revelations and Hungary 145
iii
Responding to the crisis: change socialism’s ethical standard 150
From need to equality 151
From wealth is good to wealth is bad 153
Responding to the crisis: change socialism’s epistemology 156
Marcuse and the Frankfurt School: Marx plus Freud, or 159
oppression plus repression
The rise and fall of Left terrorism 166
From the collapse of the New Left to postmodernism 170
Chapter Six: Postmodern Strategy
Connecting epistemology to politics 174
Masks and rhetoric in language 175
When theory clashes with fact 178
Kierkegaardian postmodernism 179
Reversing Thrasymachus 182
Using contradictory discourses as a political strategy 184
Machiavellian postmodernism 186
Machiavellian rhetorical discourses 187
Deconstruction as an educational strategy 188
Ressentiment postmodernism 191
Nietzschean ressentiment 192
Foucault and Derrida on the end of man 195
Ressentiment strategy 198
Post-postmodernism 201
Bibliography 202
Index 212
Acknowledgements 223
Two Additional Essays
Free Speech and Postmodernism
Sample speech codes 225
Why not rely on the First Amendment? 226
Context: why the Left? 227
Affirmative action as a working example 228
Egalitarianism 231
Inequalities along racial and sexual lines 233
The social construction of minds 234
Speakers and censors 236
iv
The heart of the debate 238
The justification of freedom of speech 239
Three special cases 241
Racial and sexual hate speech 242
The university as a special case 243
From Modern to Postmodern Art: Why Art
Became Ugly
Introduction: the death of modernism 247
Modernism’s themes 248
Postmodernism’s four themes 257
The future of art 263

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v
List of Tables and Charts
Chart 1.1: Defining Pre-modernism and Modernism 8
Chart 1.2: The Enlightenment Vision 13
Chart 1.3: Defining Pre-modernism, Modernism, and 15
Postmodernism
Chart 5.1: Marxism on the Logic of Capitalism 138
Chart 5.2: Total Livestock in the Soviet Union 144
Chart 5.3: Gross Physical Output for Selected Food Items 145
Chart 5.4: Deaths from Democide Compared to Deaths from 148
International War, 1900-1987
Chart 5.5: Left Terrorist Groups’ Founding Dates 168
Chart 5.6: The Evolution of Socialist Strategies 173

* * *