Talk:Postmodernism
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Reginod (talk | contribs) at 18:10, March 24, 2007. It may differ significantly from current revision.
The article does not name a single "postmodernist" thinker who has ever claimed that "Reality is a social construct." The article does not name such a writer because none exist. âThe preceding unsigned comment was added by Van Pelt (talk)
- Many people, however, do say truth is social construct. The article can be reworded for that. It is probably better said that the Existentialist or Nihilist would say that reality is a social construct. --Ymmotrojam 10:58, 23 March 2007 (EDT)
- The postmodernist position is emphatically not âtruth is a social constructâ many people misunderstand postmodernism to make that claim, but no postmodernist philosopher has ever made that claim, or any claim that could reasonably be understood to imply it. What some postmodernists do say is that because we (humans) experience reality through the lens of a social construct (language) we are incapable reaching/describing/understanding truthânot that truth is a social construct, but that truth is inaccessible because we experience the world through the lens of our language which is a social construct.
- The Existentialist position, also, is not that truth is a social constructâit is (roughly) that value/meaning must be provided by the person doing the valuing or looking for meaning. The Existentialist may (but need not) deny that there is value that is not socially constructedâbut value is not synonymous with truth and many of the truths in the world are not truths about value.
- The Nihilist also does not make this claim. The Nihilist says there is no value in the world, this is, in itself, a truth claimâthe Nihilist actually makes a claim about truth, separate from social construction. --Reginod 14:10, 24 March 2007 (EDT)