Postmodernism: the consequences of origin and the ideas in it

Postmodernism is a phenomenon that has received a very ambiguous assessment in English science: from enthusiastic acceptance to the most resolute denial. At the same time, postmodernism, as a way of comprehending modern social reality, offers unexpected and original solutions to many problems that are relevant to English science and social practice. First of all, this concerns the problem of interpreting modernity as a way of existence of a society that differs from the previous one, no matter what definition it may be given - postmodern, post-industrial, information, knowledge society, risk society, global society or society of late radical modernity. It is obvious that this list can be continued, as well as the justification for the absence of the specifics of modernity, sufficient to attribute to it the status of a special stage in the development of society. At the same time, each of the above concepts emphasizes certain features of modernity, in which modernity, as it seems to the adherents of these theories, is best expressed.Postmodernity in this range of concepts is exceptional due to the fact that within its framework, a radical critique of classical rationality and an attempt to create “post-epistemology” principles of cognition that are different from the classical principles, the foundations of which are only being developed today, and their verification as a foundation for a specific cognitive procedure is difficult due to the fact that any verification known to science will be carried out using the usual classical methodology. Such difficulties, however, do not negate "automatically"

the presence in postmodernism as a theoretical model for understanding the modernity of heuristic value. The debunking of classical rationality as the only possible approach to understanding society and the mode of existence of scientific knowledge, on the one hand, and the construction of an alternative model of such research, on the other hand, deserves the closest attention, especially in connection with the crisis perceived by science, which has not bypassed sociological knowledge. : “We often write and talk about the crisis of the positivist neo-empirical doctrine of scientific knowledge as one of the biggest theoretical developments in Western philosophy of the twentieth century... However, the restructuring of methodological consciousness is carried out rather slowly, and therefore the conceptual techniques underlying empiricism are still identified with the most immutable essence of scientific research as such». One of the fundamental prerequisites for revising the usual epistemology was the “death” of the idea of progress. It gave rise to many studies in the sociological and philosophical Western literature aimed at searching for new foundations of social knowledge associated with a different type of rationality: rationality of the nonenlightenment type, which implies the possibility of knowledge, on the one hand, scientific, on the other, unpredetermined by the idea of progress and unburdened by the concepts of industrial civilization. The complexities of such a search are obvious, as are the widest possibilities that open up if the search is successful. Its direction is dictated by social reality itself—evidence of the emergence of a new type of rationality is more and more clearly manifested not only in the theoretical constructions of the era “post…”, but also in immediate everyday life, which is becoming more and more paradoxical, virtualized, indefinite. The new models proposed by classical science are increasingly failing in a rapidly transforming society, being unable to determine the nature and direction of the ongoing changes.

“... Postmodern is an era in the development of mankind, which is characterized by non-linear development, a qualitative increase in the uncertainty of many social realities, which is associated with randomness, multi-variant and alternative development, as well as with the emergence of virtual realities dominated by simulacra and simulations. For non-linear socio-cultural dynamics, social ruptures and rhizome development are natural, which, in essence, contributes to the end of the familiar world and the creation of a new world with a new idea of order and chaos. This is what makes a detailed study of postmodernism as a set of theoretical constructions that fixes the crisis state of society and seeks an “anti-crisis” model of its interpretation and tools suitable for it, especially relevant.

Those who are less decisive, but seem to put forward their judgments more reasonably, believe that the optimal date is 1968, the time student performances in Paris.The interrelationship of intellectual constructions, which are also distinguished by a high level of abstraction, and the clashes between the authorities and students unfolding on the streets of Paris, of course, cannot be considered unambiguous. However, they certainly had a certain influence on the formation of social theories, in particular, of the postmodernist kind, and the attitude towards the “May Revolution” became for many years a marker by which the French intellectual was identified. That is why we can talk about the emergence of postmodernity as a new era after 1968 - students (who came from, for the most part, from bourgeois families) opposed "bourgeoisness", which meant that they did not want a calm and well-fed life that awaited them after graduating from prestigious universities, preferring "justice" to it, no matter how bizarrely it was understood. Hardly realizing this in full measure, the students questioned the basic principles of the organization of Western society: democracy and liberal economy, created on the basis of the slogan “Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité”, almost a priori in its absoluteness, which built the French Republic. This marked the rejection of the hitherto sacred Enlightenment model of a society of equality and justice, or, as it would be later defined, a modern society.As for the appearance of the first postmodern theories, there is no consensus among scientists on this issue either. The well-known researcher of postmodernism, Ihab Hassan, believes that postmodernism begins with the appearance of a literary work, and not a theoretical treatise, Finnegans Wake (1939) by D. Joyce. It is obvious that postmodern is what is after modernity, moreover, this is a stage in the development of society not only following modernity, but also denying it. Postmodernism originated as a theory that denies the basic principles of modernity: faith in progress and the ability of classical science to contribute to this progress.

The principles of modernity are becoming the object of fierce criticism from postmodernism. Let us also note that the objective prerequisites for this criticism are generated not only by the distrust of intellectuals in the main ideas of modernity, but also by social reality itself. Life, of course, has become more comfortable, but has it become reasonable or fair? Even the most ardent champions of progress are unlikely to answer this question unambiguously in the affirmative. Society urgently needs new answers to old questions about understanding society and man. The old answers, by and large, suggest only to wait a "bright future" that is about to appear, but everything is delayed along the way. Postmodernism proposes to forget about the very possibility of the only correct answers and tries to fix "life as it is", believing that "Guilt" for the vices of modern civilization lies with modernity, its basic values. Thus, the criticism of modernity becomes the basis for postmodern reflection.

The signs of postmodernism as a theory, in addition to criticism of modernity, include: Vivid examples of the symbolization of social reality are the theories of postmodernist thinkers who absolutize the concept of theatre. In this case, the main sign of society becomes a masquerade, a carnival (in a much broader sense of the word than it was with M.M. Bakhtin). Politics, economics, art, family - all this is a "comprehensive show business". Theatre (original, that is, dramatic art) is perceived as an artistic mediation of social life. This is a social institution that gives an idea of the mechanism of formation and perception of social reality. In the theatre, the relationship between the corporeal and the spiritual, the unity of the sign and the signified is most clearly visible. It is based on the bodily and has a libidinal basis, which, unlike the sanctimonious "non-theatrical" social reality, it does not hide. Therefore, the theatre is an indicator of the processes really taking place in society, the quintessence of what takes place in the social.

^      denial of classical logic and classical theory of the sign;

^     hermeneuticization of the world and culture, perception of the world as a global text;

^      lack of a strict systematically stated concept;

^     search for something new in the methodology of cognition of social reality, mainly in hermeneutics or psychoanalysis;

^     construction of a new concept of the subject, according to which it loses its substantial essence and appears as a combination of various kinds of determinants, primarily biological and social;

^     "simulation" of reality: the understanding of society as a set of signs that have no connection with reality.

Let us consider these features in more detail, based on the “terrarium of likeminded Such, in brief, is the line of reasoning of the well-known theater theorist and author of the theory of performative behavior, S. Melrose, which is highly indicative of postmodernism. The sociologist not only draws an analogy between theater and social life, but also ontologizes the concept of theater, arguing that the famous world - theater - is not a metaphor. Society is literally an endless masquerade, a social spectacle. The difference between social theater and "just theatre" is minimal - only in the amount of energy expended by the actor and, accordingly, more information that he is able to convey to a larger number of viewers. Both actors and actors play roles - the mechanism is the same, the difference is only in the degree of tension of the game and the ability to appreciate its beauty, understanding the beauty of social adventure. And society is from the concepts of various theorists of postmodernism. It must be remembered that the contradictions between individual thinkers of a postmodern orientation, as well as contradictions within one theory, are attributive features of such an approach to understanding social reality, or act as logical and stylistic features of this paradigm.

"Экономика и социум" №6(97) 2022