Modernism Vs. Postmodernism

Modernism is defined as the series of reforming cultural movements in music, art, architecture, the applied arts, and literature that occurred in the three decades before 1914. In the modern era, not only did things change as far as technology with the Industrial Revolution, but also with people themselves with awareness and a change in values. During the modern era, civilization was founded on scientific knowledge of the world and rational knowledge of values, which places the highest premium on individual human life and freedom, and believes that such freedom will lead to social progress through virtuous, self-controlled work, creating a better material, political, and intellectual life for all. Modernism dealt with the notions of justification, system, proof, and the unity of science. In this time period, people needed justification and proof of all things. They would not just believe things just because someone said that it was true. People needed reasons why certain things happened in order to be able to believe them.

One famous modernist was RenÐ"© Descartes. He decided to stop believing in every single thing that he knew in order to find out if anything was really true. Descartes talks about how it is difficult to distinguish whether or not one is dreaming or awake: "What happens in sleep doesn't appear so clear nor so distinct as does all this. But in thinking over this I remind myself that on many occasions I have in sleep been deceived by similar illusions, and in dwelling carefully on this reflection I see so manifestly that there are no certain indications by which we may clearly distinguish wakefulness from sleep I am lost in astonishment. And my astonishment is such that it is almost capable of persuading me that I now dream." (Cahoone 20). Sometimes, the mind can trick the body into thinking that it is awake, when it is really dreaming. For example, if someone were to dream about having the greatest lemonade in the world and then when they awoke, swore that they had actually tasted the lemonade in real life. Descartes also gives an example in his piece about wax. He says that if you look at a piece of wax just after it is taken from the hive, it still smells somewhat of the flower it came from, still has some of the sweetness of the honey that is inside it, is hard, makes a noise if it is tapped, and has an apparent size and shape. But if one were to heat the wax, the size and shape would change, it would no longer make a noise if tapped, it would no longer be hard, it wouldn't smell the same, and it wouldn't have the sweetness of the honey, and yet it is still the same wax. All of the observations that were made about the wax have changed, but the piece of wax still remains a piece of wax (Cahoone 24).

Postmodernism is defined as a movement of ideas arising from and critical to modernism. In the postmodern era, attitudes, beliefs, hopes, and styles changed greatly. One popular postmodernist was Friederich Nietzsche. He believed that man constantly lives in an illusion and sees forms rather than things themselves. Nietzsche had a unique view on words. He believed that words come from a nerve stimulus that is then transferred to an established image. The established image is a metaphor for the nerve stimulus. Because this is only a metaphor, it does not actually represent the essence of the thing. The image corresponds to a sound, which in return creates the word, which is really the actual metaphor for the thing. Nietzsche also speaks about truth and how truth is an illusion we no longer realize or know is an illusion. In order to be truthful, one has to use the usual metaphors, but by doing this, one has to "lie according to a fixed convention, to lie with the herd and in a manner binding upon everyone." (Cahoone 112). When one does this, he arrives at what he believes to be the truth. Nietzsche states, "Ð''truth' means using every die in the designated manner, counting its spots accurately, fashioning the right categories, and never violating the order of caste and class rank" (Cahoone 113). This means that in order to be truthful, one has to follow all of the rules precisely, never ask any questions, and never think about breaking any of the rules.

In the modern era,