Postmodernism Seen from a Critical Perspective

Postmodernism is the contemporary intellectual movement which originated in the West, and now affects the entire socio-cultural and political milieu of our times. It has within itself a wide variety of views and even conflicting conceptual positions. Its moral and religio-cultural positions are a challenge to all the existing socio-political and religio-metaphysical views and the ways of life that we all take for granted. Its influence is reflected in almost every walk of life. Postmodernism is making its presence felt in literary circles, youth movements, scientific communities, feminist and homosexual movements, and the spectrum of academic disciplines such as art, media, music, politics, theology, pedagogy and empirical sciences. Postmodernism questions the thrust of modernity, namely, methodical and monological reason. It rejects such a reason and calls for the affirmation of plurality and diversity. Nevertheless, it has failed to offer a credible alternative to reason, even a relative one, and hence all that it offers are preposterous proposals. Knowing well, that there are a lot of persons who wish to be labeled as postmodern in our own country in various disciplines, this essay seeks to examine direction, of postmodernism as well as its consequences