Neomodernism

This article is about the philosophical movement. For the architectural description, see Neomodern .

Neomodernism is a term that has at times been used to describe a philosophical position based on modernism but addressing the critique of modernism by postmodernism. It is currently associated with the works of Ágnes Heller and Carlos Escudé, and is strongly rooted in the criticisms which Habermas has leveled at postmodern philosophy, namely that universalism and critical thinking are the two essential elements of human rights and that human rights create a superiority of some cultures over others. That is, that equality and relativism are "mutually contradictory".^{[cite this quote]}

History

Soon after the modern movement, reactions were formed based in the philosophies of Friedrich Nietzsche and Søren Kierkegaard. The reaction took on the name of existentialism, and was characterized by the phrase "existence precedes essence". Existentialism was followed by postmodernism, which embraced Nietzsche's critique of the will to truth, which is the standing characteristic of modernism. Neomodernists maintain that truth still exists in a universal form and directly refute existentialist and postmodern viewpoints that the essence of an existent is formed in the observer's bias. Neomodernists stand against the discrediting of the concept of authorial intent in postmodern hermeneutics. Instead, they state that a text written in simple terms can only have the meaning that the author intended, rather than finding that even the most straightforward text can have multiple interpretations.^{[citation needed]}

Associated individuals

Ágnes Heller

Ágnes Heller's work is associated with Moral Anthropology and "probing modernity's destiny for a non-predatory humanism that combines the existential wisdom of ancient theory with modern values."^[1]

Neomodernism accepts some aspects of postmodernism's critique of modernism, notably that modernism elevated the world view of dominant groups to the status of objective fact, thereby failing to express the viewpoint of "subaltern groups," such as women and ethnic minorities. However, in her view, neomodernism rejects postmodernism as:

• Unscientific: the ability of science to generate useful knowledge cannot be waved away as "scientism".
• Journalism: as not giving any explanation as to how or why things happen.
• Local: as being unable to recognise patterns that occur across time or location.
• Unverified: as lacking any validation process, and therefore proceeding by fad and hierarchy.

Victor Grauer

In 1982, Victor Grauer attacked "the cult of the new," and proposed that there had arisen a "neo-modern" movement in the arts which was based on deep formal rigor, rather than on "the explosion of pluralism."^[2] His argument was that post-modernism was exclusively a negative attack on modernism, and had no future separate from modernism proper, a point of view which is held by many scholars of modernism.^[3]

Other uses

The neomodernism has been cited in the law as applying to an approach which granted economic rights to indigenous peoples, but without restricting them to their traditional economic activities.^[4]

See also

• Critical Theory
• Sokal Affair

References

1. ^ Chall, Leo P. (1952). Sociological Abstracts: User's Reference Manual. Sociological Abstracts. p. 2040. 
2. ^ Downtown Review, Vol. 3 Nos. 1&2, Fall/ Winter/ Spring 1981/82. Available at http://doktorgee.worldzonepro.com/MODERN.htm. Retrieved 4 August 2010.
3. ^ Downtown Review, Vol. 3 Nos. 1&2, Fall/ Winter/ Spring 1981/82. Available at http://doktorgee.worldzonepro.com/MODERN.htm. Retrieved 4 August 2010.
4. ^ Shapovalov, Aleksandr (Spring 2005). "Straightening Out the Backward Legal Regulation of "Backward" Peoples' Claims to Land in the Russian North: The Concept of Indigenous Neomodernism". Georgetown International Environmental Law Review. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3970/is_200504/ai_n13643930. Retrieved 2009-03-12.