This essay will put forward the differences between the modern Cartesian subject and the subject of postmodernity which reflect transformation of the subject through different eras in time. The essay will look at the meditations and works of Descartes and Nietzsche alike. The essay will give evidence and provide a greater understanding of the main difference between the medieval and the Cartesian subject was the idea of self-consciousness or awareness through the replacement of God. The essay will elaborate on the understanding of modernity as well postmodernity with the juxtaposition s of which exist in each school of thought, whilst tracing the history of both theories on how the thought systems came to understand religion and politics.
The notion of modernity, it could be argued, first manifested through the French philosopher Descartes who out forward the idea of the medieval man to critically view God and the world in order to find its absolute truths.
Moreover, the idea of postmodernity ‘rubbishes’ the idea of an absolute as proposed by the Cartesian school of thought. The postmodern subject therefore places greater significance on relative knowledge or understanding, which discards absolute truths, the primary subject of the human subject, and meta-narratives on society and the universe. (R. Descartes, 1947). Postmodernity also places significance on the notion that society is dominantly characterized by social division, and identity politics. (R. Descartes, 1947).
The Medieval man’s thought on the universe
During the middle Ages, people dominantly believed in divinity and the preordained existence of humanity with God as the omniscient, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent force. The notion of self-identity was inconceiva...
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... (Dreyfus and Kelly, 2011, 12).
Therefore, the only it was deduced that the only certain truth is was in his ability to think and therefore unknowingly placing doubt on the 'absolute' stance and nature of religion, ultimately, putting the existence of God into question.
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Mcgratgh,A (2004). Twilight of Athiesm. New York: WaterBrook Press. 45-52.
Dreyfus,H and Kelly, S (2011). All things shining. new york: free press. 30-36.
Lyotard, Jean-Francois. "Excerpts from The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge." Hutcheon and Natoli 71-90.
Macey, David. “Postmodernity.” The Penguin Dictionary of Critical Theory. London: Penguin Books, 2001. 307-309. Print.
In conclusion, religion played a vital role from before Constantine and after Constantine. The church has changed, but people’s views on God stayed the same. Most of these people, at first did not believe in God but after some faith, they all converted to Christianity. The people included in this paper are extremely important people that lived their life differently than others because of what they believed. They are all great examples how Christianity has changed their lives since they converted.
The writers and thinkers of the fifteenth sixteenth centuries believed that they took part in a completely different era than the Middle Ages. They believed that they were part of a more modern and current era known as the Renaissance. These people considered the Renaissance to be a new beginning of the Middle Ages (Document 1). During the Renaissance, religion was seen through a new perspe...
Over the past thirty years, generations understand the world around us is made up of worldly views and patterns of thoughts that inform the culture. Postmodernism informs more of the current culture than of the past, and plays a major role in media, politics, and religion. Postmodernism relies more on experience rather than specific principles, knowing that the outcome of one’s experience will be relative than universal. Postmodernism implies a shattering of innocent confidence in the capacity of the self to control its own destiny. These are some characteristics that researchers find important?
Postmodern literature contains an authoritative point of view as it expresses the “real” and the “unreal”. The authoritative viewpoint hides within the representation of words and the form of the text. Jean Baudrillard speaks of the masking of view in his essay, “Postmodernism and Consumer Society”, when he says, “This, feigning or dissimilating leaves the reality principle inta...
In Descartes’ meditations, Descartes begins what Bernard Williams has called the project of ‘pure enquiry’ to discover an indubitable premise or foundation to base his knowledge on, by subjecting everything to a kind of scepticism now known as Cartesian doubt. This is known as foundationalism, where a philosopher basis all epistemological knowledge on an indubitable premise.
In this period, there are the bases for the creation of a new movement that will culminate during the 14th century. This particular view is enclosed in a sub-movement called humanism: humanists encouraged to put in the centre of the universe the man. The man is the main centre of the universe and of the thoughts. In this period intellectuals obtained answers in the works of the ancient classics, they embraced the classic culture, especially the ancient Greek culture, leading to the birth of a new science: The Philology, whose main learner was Lorenzo Valla. Classic themes are the inspiration for the artists: from poets to painters, they are all under this influence.
I would like to explore one of the questions posed to us by Professor which is “How can we make the positive aspects of postmodernism work in our favor?” Or even more specifically, the positive and neutral elements of postmodernism, work in the favor of the Christian worldview and thought. We will start by first exploring the basic tenants of postmodernism and a brief history of where it has been and where it is currently, revealing multiple advantages for the Christian worldview in the engagement of a postmodern.
Postmodernism first appeared around the 1980’s, following a hectic and messy period of time. The postmodernist theory that defines a new era describing the world as society is fragmenting, while authority is de-centering, and real truth does not exist; there are only representations of it. Believers of the postmodernist theory, believe that postmodernism is a mixture of present, past, and future, more specifically, the cultural and spatial elements of these different times (Lemert, 2010). The postmodern age is considered the information age, or even, the technological age. Both of these are evident through the changes that have occurred within the typical marriage and family. One of the main emphases of postmodernism is that no real truth exists, demonstrating the grand narrative. The grand narrative states that the “truth” is invented for the sole purpose of selling things. This is clearly shown, in a different manner, in marriages and families in today’s society. No real truth being in existence creates change in the typical marriage and family.
McHale, Brian. “Afterword: Reconstructing Postmodernism.” Narrative 213 (2013): 357-364. Academic Search Complete. Web. 29 Oct. 2013.
Through out history there have been questions of where we come from and how we got here. It all comes down to the question of God’s existence. God’s existence has never been questioned during the times of when Christianity, Judaism and Islam were born. The question of God’s existence comes from our new way of thinking after these religions. Science has made us think of how things work in our world and brings Gods existence into question. There were no scientific studies done during the days of Jesus to prove that God exists, so where did the people in history get this idea of God from? Many philosophers have been questioning and giving their ideas of God and his existence. The ideas that we may have of God is usually connected with religion and our beliefs. One philosopher that touches on this topic is Descartes. Descartes gives his ideas on God’s existence and his out look on our selves compared to God. Most religions believe that there is a God and that he has created everything around us. Everyone has a different answer to this question that they think is the right one. Throughout this paper, I will be discussing God’s existence, while looking at Descartes ideas and through different perspectives of whether or not God exist as well.
Rene Descartes, a 17th century French philosopher believed that the origin of knowledge comes from within the mind, a single indisputable fact to build on that can be gained through individual reflection. His Discourse on Method (1637) and Meditations (1641) contain his important philosophical theories. Intending to extend mathematical method to all areas of human knowledge, Descartes discarded the authoritarian systems of the scholastic philosophers and began with universal doubt. Only one thing cannot be doubted: doubt itself. Therefore, the doubter must exist. This is the kernel of his famous assertion Cogito, ergo sum (I am thinking, therefore I am existing). From this certainty Descartes expanded knowledge, step by step, to admit the existence of God (as the first cause) and the reality of the physical world, which he held to be mechanistic and entirely divorced from the mind; the only connection between the two is the intervention of God.
The view of humanity during the Late Middle Ages was that humans did not know everything and were not sup...
Postmodernism assumes an ontology of fragmented being. Where modernism asserts the primacy of the subject in revealing universal truth, postmodernism challenges the authority of the subject and, thus, universal truth based on it. Modernism and postmodernism, however, draw upon distinctly different epistemological modes: critical and dogmatic.