Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault Paperback – 1 February 2019

Abarca demasiada información, pero precisamente me gustó que el autor logra sintetizar tanto y explicar conceptos tan densos de manera puntual y entendible.

This book created a framework for me at least to understand the mindset and objectives of today's post-modernist progressives. To me logic and reason is just thinking; I would assume that this is how all others grapple with issues, I have learned that this is not the case. In fact, logic and reason is often viewed as 'oppressive'. Read this book and you will understand why we see so many perspectives and policy stances that seem to ignore the facts and details that I for one deem as important. It is a challenging read, but one that is worth while. Well done Pr. Hicks!

...and its roots go back a long way. I doubt it is possible to write a better book which more comprehensively understands and explains the current cultural insanity in Western societies - starting with the universities but spreading among corporations and institutions. (This "cultural insanity" is a combination of post-modernism, radical feminism, and neo-Marxism realising it had to "remodel" itself after the collapse of communism by way of attacking logic itself, and reason, and attaching itself to "identity politics" with its psychology of oppression and victimhood.) This book, brilliantly and clearly, explains the thinking processes, starting all the way back with Rousseau and Kant, and the political and historical processes, from Marx to past the fall of the Berlin Wall. It's clear that the truth of the situation is that capitalism is a massive success - despite its shortcomings and need for constant accountability and reform - and that women and people of all races have far better opportunities than they have ever had in history; and the only way you can deny the validity of the data is by deciding you have to attack validity itself, and start making wild claims, e.g. black right-wing intellectuals are "multiculturally white". You obviously need to tread on free speech, if you want to occupy the moral high ground while condemning the opinions of others by saying they should not even have a platform. You need to cultivate the paranoia which leads you to detect racism everywhere, rather than in a few, and fewer, places. And you need to condemn radicalism on the right while cultivating radicalism on the left - rather than being sane and condemning the Black Lives Matter movement for believing in tearing down society, as well as the "Proud Boys" for being bigoted idiots. Then, like in Orwell's 1984, doublethink becomes the norm - or as we sane people would sometimes refer to it, hypocrisy, e.g. the co-founder of BLM, a self-declared anticapitalist Marxist, now using donations to BLM to build up her own personal real estate assets. What becomes the norm after that? They get enough power to set up their own militant pseudo-police and they start coming for you in the night and sending you off to "re-education camps". And if you want to properly understand how it all started and how it works, read this book before they decide it should be banned in the interests of political correctness. And the next time somebody tries preaching to you about diversity and inclusivity and equity, ask them how many Conservative professors they have in their college or university.

A primeira edição deste livro já era muito boa. Esta nova versão estendida ficou ainda melhor porque acrescenta dois novos ensaios inéditos: "Free Speech & Postmodernism" e (o meu favorito) "From Modern to Postmodern Art: Why Art Became Ugly". Como um todo, o livro é brilhante e investiga a fundo a origem remota das principais ideias que animam os acalorados debates de hoje em dia. O pós-modernismo e a pós-modernidade são explicados de uma maneira original, desbancando, de certa forma, as antigas teorias como as de Fredric Jameson ("Pós-modernismo ou a Lógica Cultural do Capitalismo Tardio"). No livro do professor Stephen Hicks, a lógica cultural do pós-modernismo tem origem em Kant, nos movimentos contra-Iluministas e daí por diante. Dessa forma, trazem um frescor para a discussão. Trata-se de uma longa jornada intelectual, que Hicks empreende com coragem e lucidez. Uma leitura bastante prazerosa, cujo ápice se dá no novo capítulo final ("From Modern to Postmodern Art: Why Art Became Ugly") no qual o professor investiga as principais características dos produtos culturais pós-modernistas e questiona a razão pela qual todos parecem girar sempre em torno dos mesmos temas e, esteticamente, investirem invariavelmente na "feiúra", no mau gosto e, sobretudo, na capacidade de chocar.

I knew going in that this book would not be friendly to postmodernism, but given the title, I expected it to be a detailed analysis and critique of postmodern thought. It is not. While it does contain an overview of postmodernism, it is much more a philosophical history of how postmodernism came to be. That is, rather than "Explaining Postmodernism," Hicks explains the history of postmodernism. In that regard, I was initially disappointed that the book didn't offer what I was expecting.However, what the book did offer was a sobering look at the history of postmodern thought which finally clarifies the link between postmodern philosophy and far-left politics in a way that I wish I had understood years ago. By the time I finished reading the book, my initial disappointment at the books historical rather than critical approach had faded, as it became abundantly clear that the book I thought I was going to read would be impossible: one cannot actually explain postmodern thought because postmodern thought is internally inconsistent and structured to meet political ends rather than in the pursuit of academic truth.At times, it can be a bit difficult to determine the book's target audience. Hicks oscillates between casual/conversational English and a semi-academic tone, and belabors some points while occasionally assuming a greater depth of knowledge on the part of the reader than most laypeople are likely to possess. These minor failings don't detract from the work as an eye-opening expose of an intellectual movement, however, but the reader should be aware that Explaining Postmodernism is far too short a book to fully explain all of the topics it covers and should be treated as an introductory text that should hopefully guide some further reading.This edition has been expanded with two additional essays, one discussing postmodern attacks on free speech and one providing a brief history of modern and postmodern art. The former, while I think the author's analysis is very close to completely correct, did not particularly elucidate the book's main theses. I think it's a worthwhile essay to read, but it might better have been read as a stand-alone essay, leaving those extra pages in the book for slightly more detail in the book's main analysis. The latter essay, however, is particularly thought-provoking. Hicks does an admirable job of condensing a significant period of art's history into a few pages and explaining "why art became ugly." I think the brevity of his analysis resulted in a slight disservice being done to the experimentation of modern art, but his biting criticism of postmodern art ends with a refreshing charge for up and coming artists to pioneer a new movement in art rejecting the universal nihilism of postmodernism.If you've ever wondered why so much seems to be going so wrong in academia (or in art!), this book makes an excellent first stop. I think it should be considered required reading for anyone who wishes to engage in public debate in the early 21st century.