- "Skepticism toward the 'grand narratives' of modernism; rejection of epistemic (scientific) certainty or the stability of meaning; and sensitivity to the role of ideology in maintaining political power."
A movement that challenges the idea of objective historical truth and instead sees history as a series of subjective narratives and interpretations.
Modernism: Modernism is the cultural movement that preceded postmodernism, and deeply influenced it. This includes an emphasis on rationality, science, and progress, and a belief in the autonomy of the self.
Structuralism: Structuralism is a theory that argues that meaning is produced through the relationships between signs, rather than by the signs themselves. This is an important precursor to postmodernism, which often critiques the idea of a fixed, stable meaning.
Deconstruction: Deconstruction is a method of textual analysis that seeks to expose and destabilize the fundamental binaries that structure discourse. Postmodernism is heavily influenced by this approach, which challenges the idea of fixed meaning and exposes the limitations of language.
Hermeneutics: Hermeneutics is the study of interpretation, and is important to the philosophy of history, which is concerned with understanding the meaning and significance of historical events.
Historiography: Historiography is the study of historical writing, and is central to understanding the philosophy of history. This includes an analysis of the biases and assumptions that inform historical narratives, and the ways in which power structures influence historical interpretation.
Poststructuralism: Poststructuralism builds on the ideas of structuralism, but takes them in a more radical direction. This includes a critique of binaries and a focus on the ways in which power operates through discourse.
Marxism: Marxism is an influential theory that sees history as the struggle between social classes. This is an important precursor to postmodernism, which seeks to expose the ways in which power is embedded in societal structures and discourses.
Semiotics: Semiotics is the study of signs and symbols, and is important to postmodernism, which often critiques the ways in which these symbols are used to maintain power relations.
Phenomenology: Phenomenology is a philosophical approach that focuses on the study of lived experience. This is important to the philosophy of history, which is concerned with understanding the subjective experiences of historical actors.
Narrative Theory: Narrative theory is the study of the structure and function of stories. This is important to the philosophy of history, which often relies on the construction of narrative accounts to make sense of historical events.
Deconstruction: A philosophical movement associated with Jacques Derrida that aims to expose the paradoxes and contradictions in language, literature, and culture.
Cultural Criticism: A postmodern approach to literary and cultural analysis that examines how social and cultural factors influence the creation and interpretation of texts.
Poststructuralism: An umbrella term for various philosophical movements that challenge traditional binary oppositions and hierarchies, such as the distinction between mind and body or subject and object.
Critical Theory: A contemporary approach to social analysis that aims to reveal and challenge power structures and inequalities in society.
Ecocriticism: A postmodern approach to literary and cultural analysis that focuses on the relationship between humans and the natural environment.
Marxist Historiography: A school of thought within the philosophy of history that views history as a struggle between different economic classes, with the eventual triumph of the proletariat over the bourgeoisie.
Postmodern Historiography: A contemporary approach to the philosophy of history that challenges traditional notions of objectivity and truth in historical narratives, emphasizing the role of language, power, and subjectivity in historical interpretation.
Annales School: A French school of historical thought associated with figures such as Fernand Braudel and Marc Bloch, that emphasizes the importance of long-term structures, cultural and social history, and interdisciplinary analysis.
Whig History: A traditional approach to the philosophy of history that presents history as a linear progress towards greater freedom, democracy, and prosperity.
Feminist Historiography: A postmodern approach to the philosophy of history that examines how gender roles and power structures have shaped historical narratives and perspectives.
- "Claims to objectivity are dismissed as naïve realism, with attention drawn to the conditional nature of knowledge claims within particular historical, political, and cultural discourses."
- "Self-referentiality, epistemological relativism, moral relativism, pluralism, irony, irreverence, and eclecticism."
- "It rejects the 'universal validity' of binary oppositions, stable identity, hierarchy, and categorization."
- "Initially emerging from a mode of literary criticism, postmodernism developed in the mid-twentieth century as a rejection of modernism."
- "Postmodernism is associated with the disciplines deconstruction and post-structuralism."
- "Postmodernism has been observed across many disciplines."
- "Various authors have criticized postmodernism as promoting obscurantism, as abandoning Enlightenment, rationalism and scientific rigor, and as adding nothing to analytical or empirical knowledge."
- "Rejection of epistemic (scientific) certainty or the stability of meaning."
- "Sensitivity to the role of ideology in maintaining political power."
- "Claims to objectivity."
- "Moral relativism."
- "Stable identity."
- "In the mid-twentieth century."
- "The 'grand narratives' of modernism."
- "The stability of knowledge claims within particular historical, political, and cultural discourses."
- "Irony and irreverence."
- "Categorization."
- "Promoting obscurantism."
- "Hierarchy."