Postmodernism [The Postmodern Condition]

The expression “postmodern eduacation” is ambiguous. On the one hand, it is a broadly sociological one referring to trends in education that have evolved in the so-called “postmodern condition” of contemporary culture. On the other hand, it refers to conceptions, attitudes, and proposals inspired by the alleged insights of philosophers who, with or without their blessing, are labeled “postmodernists.” (a shortlist would include jean-francois lyotard. Michel foucalt, jacques derrida, jean baudrillar, peter sloterdijk, and richard rorty). These conceptions, attitudes. And proposals are urgent at various levels : they may concern the organization and administration of education, teaching methods, the nature of particular disciplines, the general “one” or “spirit” of education, and so on.

The focus of this chapter is upon postmodern education in the second of those senses, postmodernist educational thinking. Nevertheless, a few remaks on "the postmodern condition" and its educational dimensions are in order, not least because there are close connections between that condition and postmodernidt thought. One the one hand, postmodernist education regard their conseptions and proposals as peculiary suited to societies experiencing that condition. One finds it urged. For example, that schools should emulate postmodernnist trends in architechture through the encouragement of variety, hostility to central planning, and so on (standish, 1995. P. 127). On the other hand, the post modern condition is itself deemed to be the outcome, in part, of an atrophy - articulated and endorsed by postmodernist thinker - of older philosophical convictions, such as confidence in universal moral norms.

Unfortunately, the expression "postmodernist condition" is itself ambiguous. Lyotard, who popularized the expression, sometime uses it in a historical sense, to refer to the "condition of knowledge in the most highly developed societies" that has become increasingly distinctive of "the state of our culture" since the nineteenth century. But he also uses "postmodern" to refer to an aspect of of any age whatever that is self-consciously "modern"-its "suspicion of the past" and "flight ... Out of the metaphysical, religous and political certaintles" of the preceding age. So, understood, the postmodern, Lyotard remarks, is "undoubtedly part of the modern". And  distinguished from other aspects by an attitude of "jubilation". As opposed to one of "regret" or nostalgia, regarding the demise of the old "certainties" (Lyotard 1984. Pp. 79ff).

In the postmodern condition, Lyotard's focus is primarily upon the postmodern in the first, historical sense - on "the state of our culture". like many chroniclers of this condition, such as Fredric Jameson, Lyotard draws attention to such salient features of developed societies as consumerism, global, capitalization, eclectricism, and an "anything goes" attitude in the arts and private life, a veneer of variety masking an underlying monotony, and the hegemony of a "performalivity principle" that subjects activities to the "techno-scientific" criterion of "optimalization of the cost/benefit (input/output) ratio" (Lyotard. 1993. P . 25). As his subtitle. " A report on knowledge", indicates, Lyotard's emphasis, however, is upon the changes in ideologies and our "cognitive condition" that have helped to generate a culture with those features. Crudely put, the big change has been "the end of ideology", the atrophy of beliefs and ideals, of confidence in the powers of reason and moral reflection, that once provided people with purposes capable of constraining "consumer choice" and taste, and of furnishing criteria to override those of "fun" and "perfomance".

A diagnosis of our "cognitive condition" that complements Lyotard's is offered in Peter Sloterddijk's The Critique of Cynical Reason. The eynicism reffered to in the tittle is "a central feature of the postmodern condition" and defined by Sloterdijk as "enlightened false consciousness" (Sloterdijk, 1987, pp. Xi, 5). Enlightened, since it is that of people who have "seen through" the traditional justifications-religious, metaphysical, and so on - for values and beliefs, but false or therefore, marked by "the passing of... Hopes" that brings in its train a "listlessness of egoism" and "apathy" (ibid., p. 6). Recognizing that values have "short lives" and saying "no thanks!" to "new values", the cynical person is resigned to the pursuits of material well-being and fun, while displaying an ability to control "the symptoms of depression" that glimpses of the emptiness of life occasionally induce (ibid.. Pp. Xxvii, 5-6).

Both lyotard and sloterdijk apply their diagnoses of the postmodern "cognitive condition" to the state of education. For the former, education has fallen increasingly under the domination of techno-science" and the "rule" of "consensus". The "cognitive statements" and "commitments" to be encouraged by education are those deemed acceptable by criteria of pragmatic, techological value, or that are "testifed" to by widespread consensus (Lyotard, 1984, pp. 76ff). For Sloterdijk, we are in effect witnessing "the end of the belief in education" considered as something to "improve" human beings. What does not visibly contribute to prospects in the job market induces "a priori stupefaction" among those at school (Sloterdijk, 1987, p. Xxix).

As the tone of their remakes indicates, the attitude of Lyotard and Sloterdijk toward the postmodern condition is mixed. Like many other observers of that condition, they endorse the "suspicion" off , and "flight" from, traditional certainties. They are however, sharply critical of the social, cultural and educational tendencies that have accompanied this "flight". The contemporary response to the "end of ideology" has, taken at large, been a perverse one. The form of a more of approriate  response and its implication for education, is something we can identify only after examining the charachter of postmodernist philosophy.