Postmodern worldviews
People with postmodern worldviews are often driven to express their authentic, unique selves. In response to the ‘objectified’, functional, rationalistic modern world, they emphasize the subjective world ~ its emotional, creative, moral, and imaginary dimensions. One of this worldview’s central insights is that humans’ perception shapes the world ~ ie., that we construct our world through the assumptions we hold and the stories we tell. Lyotard famously summed up the postmodern stance as “incredulity towards metanarrativesâ€, referring to a disbelief in the big stories of (modern) society.
Indeed, postmoderns are often all about deconstructing modernity’s ‘big stories’ ~ its focus on material progress, its unquestioned belief in science and technology, its celebration of capitalism ~ arguing these stories mainly serve the powerful. Postmoderns display a new sensitivity to those who are marginalized and exploited, and are often driven to empower minorities and advance social justice. These are some of their very best qualities.
Knowledge
In the quest for truth, postmoderns emphasize a wide range of modes of knowing, including morality, imagination, and art, and they challenge the idea that only objective science can lead to truth. In academia, there’s a shift from objective, quantitative research methods to more qualitative, interpretative approaches. In this view, truth is thus relative (rather than absolute), contextual (rather than universal), and subjective (rather than objective). Instead of relying on external authorities, postmoderns often emphasize a sense of inner authority – trusting their ‘moral compass’, intuition, or feeling.
Reality
The view of reality is diverse and undefined, characterized by uncertainty, ambiguity, and fragmentation. Validating multiple perspectives may lead to an intense relativism, in which the existence of truth itself is contested: ‘you have your truth, I have mine, so there is no such thing as objective truth.’ Frequently, postmoderns either adhere to a liberal (interpretation of their) religion or spirituality, or display an agnostic attitude, saying we don’t know whether there is a divine being, force, or reality. Nature often gains in importance in this worldview, as a larger, more systemic view of how everything is interconnected is emerging.
Identity and values
Postmoderns often find personal meaning in a sense of self-expression and -development. They cultivate an independent sense of themselves, and yearn to participate and contribute to society in their own, unique ways. “Post-material†values, like creativity, authenticity, imagination, participation, diversity, and pluralism are usually dominant. These post-material values are reflected in the rise of social movements since the 1960’s, which promote, among others, peace, civil rights, feminism, gay rights, and the environment.
Society
Recognizing we construct the world through the stories we tell can be liberating and empowering. However, it can also undercut notions of truth and reality, resulting in nihilism, relativism, and even anti-realism. This has become a big problem in our ‘post-truth’ world. Not knowing what is true undermines people’s sense of direction and meaning in life. ‘Political correctness’ may emerge from postmoderns’ passionate commitment to inclusion and social justice, while not tolerating others who don’t hold the same values. Postmodernity brings its share of problems, yet also contributes with its emphasis on subjectivity, its sensitivity and care, its valuing of diversity, and its commitment to social justice.
Qualities of the postmodern worldview
Search for and expression of the unique, authentic self.
Emphasis on subjectivity, emotion, imagination, inner authority, intuition, participation, creativity.
A celebration of diversity, perspective, context, difference, relativism, pluralism.
Commitment to emancipation of minorities and social justice.
Deconstructs modernity’s big stories (of science, progress, capitalism, etc) and addresses power issues.
Associated with (global) environmental concern and care.
Concerns with the postmodern worldview
Postmoderns can become ‘anti-moderns’, only seeing its problems while overlooking (and thus not integrating) its achievements.
Nihilism, hyper-relativism, anti-realism, and narcissism play out in our postmodern (post-truth) world, where people don’t know what’s true anymore nor what the meaning of life is (meaning-making crisis).