Political Theory and Postmodernism

Author: (USA) White / Sun Shuguang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-12-01
Features: Postmodernism has once again sparked enormous debate, and it still does today, especially now, as it has diffused into a general discourse. Some view postmodernism as a set of principles, such as its fundamental resistance to various meta-narratives and its surprising deconstructive nature, but an increasing number of people are benefiting from its innovative perspective. In this book, Stephen K. White distinguishes between two entirely different ways of thinking about the meaning of responsibility: one prevalent in modernist discourse and the other prevalent in postmodernist discourse, thereby clearing the path through the complexities of postmodernism. Guided by this approach, White explores the works of Heidegger, Foucault, Derrida, Lyotard, Habermas, and those of difference feminists, aiming to demonstrate how postmodernism can offer insights for contemporary ethical-political reflection. White argues that a more affirmative other-directedness must supplement postmodernism's well-known stance of resistance and destruction. This orientation takes the form of a mild form of care, emerging from the dissemination of a contradictory emotion in which the sorrow arising from the loss of certainty and the joy arising from difference are intertwined. In the concluding chapter, White examines how this revised postmodernist perspective influences our thinking about justice.