Postmodernism...I heard about it all the time in college. I recently
heard more about it in relation to the passing of one of its supposed
founders Jacques Derrida. I have heard there is a backlash against it
in recent thought and it is now popular in some circles to bash it and
make fun of it publicly. But that is not the best way to deal with it
usually in my view...
The simple fact of the matter is that postmodernism doesn't really
signify anything significant. It simply a set of statements, claims,
ideas of a few French, German, and American thinkers. Its claims and
conclusions are quite profound, but they are not new in any sense.
They have been around since before Plato's time. So, what is the best
thing to do in response to it? There is no absolute magic formula.
Sometimes, note that postmodernists (as they sometimes call
themselves) don't really give arguments for their point of
view....they just make claims. They may attempt to show paradoxes in
things and thereby assume they have shown that something is
contradictory; you should simply explain that a paradox is not
necessarily a contradiction and do your best to use an argument to
defend it. Like this maybe, "The truck is blue and it is also not
blue. That is a contradiction. To say that evil happens in the world
and there is a good God is paradoxical, but it is not
a contradiction. There are other elements to the question that may
explain the paradox; perhaps even things we haven't thought of yet or
cannot due to our existential context."
Usually, however, I suggest that you should simply ignore it most of
the time. Ignore their claims, assumptions, and ideas. Don't try to
fight them too hard, because in their world view, they have already
guaranteed their victory. The more you ignore it, without being mean,
the more good you do the people who hold the point of view.
