Modernity and Contradiction

Author: Baoman
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-11-01
Features: The author examines the issues of modernity and postmodernity from a fresh perspective. The author points out that the emergence of modernity has not changed the contingency and contradictions of human existence. Postmodernity, on the other hand, emphasizes reconciliation and the need to learn how to live amidst contradictions. This book is intended for philosophy faculty and students in universities, as well as readers interested in philosophy. The book discusses various issues raised in the debate over modernity and postmodernity from a thought-provoking and novel perspective. The author argues that modernity promised to bring clarity and transparency to human life, which only reason could provide. However, this did not happen. Moreover, we no longer believe that it ever would. We have become increasingly contingent, and the irreparable contradictions of choices, identities, and life plans have become more pronounced. Why did the promise of modernity fail to materialize? The author believes the answer lies in the promise itself, in the self-destructive nature of all attempts to fulfill it. It is precisely in the postmodern era that the self-destructive nature of the modern project has become fully apparent to the world. The postmodern era is an era of reconciliation with contradictions, an era of learning how to live in a world that is irredeemably full of them.