Postmodernism

Lecture 35, Postmodernism, of UGS 303, Ideas of the Twentieth Century, University of Texas at Austin, Fall 2013

[jahbuzzz]

Very enjoyable lecture - some oil needed on one of the chairs though!

[FuryOss]

how refreshing to have a  professor who is so passionate and engaged with the subject matter...these students are lucky. 

[dazdoukas]

Who's the clown in the audience making all the honking noises?

[EWKification]

Talk about hand gestures. This guy gets a workout in a lecture.

[timberrr]

STAND-OUT QUOTES:
02:46 DURING ENLIGHTENMENT ERA:
1. There are absolute Truths
2. Objective knowledge possible
3. Use reason based on experience
4. Key to make progress is by using Truths and Reason to therefore find objective knowledge

03:22 Postmodernists reject Truths, Objectivity, reason

19:24 Postmodernists say it is mistake to say we have direct access to our own mind.
20:40 PM call it DE-CENTERING.
PM say “You are not at the center of your own mind”
PM say “You don’t have direct knowledge of anything”
* * * * PM DANGER * * * *
PM say “Limits of language determine limits of our world”
PM Caution: We are not at the center of that world.
* * * * * * * *
24:08 We use ready made concepts generated from society. Concepts come from language. Language comes from society.

28:40 DIFFERENCES
Differences allow to identify objects
Language establishes a structure
Language determines limits of our world
Language presents differences

30:52 Structure only. Language cannot give what what an object physically is.

32:12 No difference between fiction and
Non fiction. Language gives just a system of signs. Reporting vs. telling a story.
No way to get at underlying world.

33:30 No Truths are absolute.
Truths are just social constructions.
33:50 Objectivism is impossible.

34:06 Rejection of reason. Postmodern given: Reason is a tool of oppression

35:00 Expose the categories and power structures

37:12 Hypocritical: They use logical argumentation to defend Postmodernism
Logic is a tool of oppression
Language cannot determine what something is.
.

[DoveTurtleDove]

I'm so interested in postmodernism so I took a course in it a year ago. Watching this 45 minute lecture while laying in bed sipping my morning coffee and taking notes made me realize that that course was a waste of time and energy lol. Amazing lecture, very clear and well prepared. Thank you for sharing it with us.

[moomoocamus]

"No truths are absolute, " would appear to be an absolute statement about truth. If there is no truth (about for example the way the world is), why speak about the world at all? Just celebration perhaps? Why assert and contest any statement if there is no truth to approximate? On the contrary, some descriptions of the way the world is, are more accurate and more robust than others. Thus compare the following accounts of what happened in Germany under Nazi rule: (α) ‘the country was depopulated’; (β) ‘millions of people died’; (γ) ‘millions of people were killed’; (δ)‘millions of people were massacred’. All four statements are true.But (δ) is not only the most evaluative, " See The Possibility of Naturalism, 3rd edition, Bhaskar 1979 (1998) p.65.

[draspotnuk]

Long story short:

Postmodernism is the return to Solopsism, or something even worse, return to nothing.

The ancients would have laughed at this absurd worldview.

[SimiBella]

Your videos really make concepts easy to understand. Thank you.

[tylermacdonald]

I wonder if this post modernist movement is a symptom of a culture in decay. Losing faith in itself and humanity.

[brittonkimler]

Chomsky (paraphrased): "Postmodernism, when it makes any sense at all, is reducible to monosyllabic truisms and lacks for any true complexity. It is the output of outmoded humanities professors envying for the esteem that comes with theory in the STEM fields and wishing that they'd also chosen a useful field of study."

"Critical Theory" is not theory - more like a set of lazily built and unfalsifiable hypotheses. As a rubric, this is the sophomoric sophistry of three generations now of hack academics jerking each other off in very insular circles.

[alicesmi]

What's your hobby?
Postmodernist: Victimizing myself and others.

[mms]

Damn, if everyone had profs like this, the college graduation rate would definitely be higher than90%

[intboom]

Is Vaporwave post modernism or a deconstruction of post modernism? (weirdly enough, I'm not asking this ironically)

[michealflaithbheartaigh]

It sounds the BS i put up with for 3 years on an Art Degree ....Anti Philosophy is what I call it

[davereese]

Fantastic. What a great educator. He truly connects with his audience without talking down to them.

[BRBWaffles]

When Daniel asked the question if there was anything that could get between you and yourself, I immediately thought consciousness itself. The structure of your mind is not significantly different if consciousness is absent for whatever reason. The parts of your mind that govern language, imagination, or abstraction could be firing on all pistons, but without a conscious awareness to make contact with that activity, it's just dark. Is that not a barrier between you and yourself? Well, I guess that hinges on whether or not you can be defined as yourself in the absence of consciousness, which is surely debatable, of course.

[rgaleny]

Education and communication in the 19th and 20th century were not much better that what came before. With computers and R&D, with access to more info, education and Communication can be democratized and improve in leaps and bounds. If saying women are neurotic for wanting sex in 1900 is modern, then, allowing them a more human space in society is post modern. In the future the term will be replaced by a more specific term. Post modern is just a term for all the new stuff now available that is waiting to have an effect over the coming decades.

[chhorisberger]

now I really wish I had visited philosophy courses in university - especially with a teacher like you. enjoyed every second of it, keep up the good work!

[DanLackey]

A great thing about Bonevac. He is a dynamic lectuerer "on a roll." But he can absorb questions and comments from his attentive audience without getting "derailed."