G,M,PM: Postmodernity (Foucalt, Lyotard, Baudrillard)

Question 1

How is postmodern society described?

Answer 1

• unstable
• fragmented
• media-saturated global village
• image and reality are indistinguishable
• we define ourselves by what we consume

Question 2

What do postmodernists argue about knowledge? What is this view called?

Answer 2

• there are no sure foundations to knowledge
• no objective criteria we can use to prove whether a theory is true or false
• called anti-foundationalism

Question 3

What are the two consequences of anti-foundationalism?

Answer 3

• Enlightenment project of achieving progress through true, scientific knowledge is dead - knowledge cannot be guaranteed to be correct so cannot be used to improve society
• any all-embracing theory is a mere meta-narrative - just a version of reality

Question 4

What does it mean when we say that postmodernists reject meta-narratives and take a relativist position?

Answer 4

• they argue all views are true for those who hold them
• all accounts of reality are equally valid
• we should celebrate the diversity of views

Question 5

How does Lyotard define knowledge in postmodern society?

Answer 5

• a series of different ‘language games’ or ways of seeing the world

Question 6

What does Baudrillard argue society is based on?

Answer 6

• no longer on the production of material goods but on the buying and selling of knowledge in form of images and signs

Question 7

Give an example of what Baudrillard would consider simulacra?

Answer 7

• tabloid articles about fictitious soap characters

Question 8

How does Baudrillard describe the situation in which we are surrounded by simulacra?

Answer 8

• hyper-reality

Question 9

Why has culture become fragmented and unstable?

Answer 9

• the role of media in creating hyper-reality
• they produce an endless stream of ever-changing images, values and versions of the truth
• no longer a coherent fixed set of values shared by society

Question 10

How does the array of different messages/ ideas reduce people’s faith in the possibility of rational progress?

Answer 10

• they lose faith in meta-narratives such as Marxism that promise a better society

Question 11

Why does identity become destabilised in postmodern society?

Answer 11

• people are more able to construct their own identities and identities can be easily changed through consumption patterns eg. picking and mixing cultures

Question 12

Why is Baudrillard pessimistic about postmodern society?

Answer 12

• we cannot distinguish reality from image

- if we cannot even grasp reality then we have no power to change it

Question 13

How do Foucault’s views kill off the Enlightenment project?

Answer 13

• he believes everyone believes different discourses, and there is no way to decide which the truth because the truth is relative and each discourse is true for those who believe it
• resultantly, there can be no progress because the Enlightenment project cannot discover

Question 14

Marxists Philo and Miller provide several criticisms of postmodernity. How could it be said that the theory ignores inequality and power?

Answer 14

• idea that media images are unconnected to reality ignores the use of the media by the ruling class as a tool of domination

Question 15

Marxists Philo and Miller provide several criticisms of postmodernity. How could the theory overlook poverty?

Answer 15

• claims we freely construct identities through consumption

Question 16

Marxists Philo and Miller provide several criticisms of postmodernity. How could their views on the media simply be wrong?

Answer 16

• simply wrong to claim that people cannot distinguish between reality and media image
  (can challenge by saying that actually we are constantly blurring the boundaries ie. ‘reality’ television provides a warped version of reality)

Question 17

Marxists Philo and Miller provide several criticisms of postmodernity. By assuming all views are equally true, how does the theory become morally indefensible?

Answer 17

• becomes just as true to claim holocaust didn’t happen

Question 18

How could Lyotard’s theory be self-defeating?

Answer 18

• why should we believe a theory that claims no theory has the truth

Question 19

How can their rejection of the Enlightenment project be challenged?

Answer 19

• Henry believes political decisions do make a real difference to people’s lives

Question 20

Name the key sociologists and ideas connected to postmodernity

Answer 20

• Foucalt: anti-foundationalism
• Lyotard: knowledge is ‘language games’
• Baudrillard: simulacra and hyper-reality