Philosophical Movements of the 1960s

Enlightenment Paradigm

• Two-Level Theory: Manifest image vs. Scientific image
  • Manifest image: everyday experiences, considered fictions
  • Scientific image: underlying hidden level explaining manifest behavior
  • Examples: Microparticles (Enlightenment materialism), Evolutionary biology, Freudian psychology, Will to power

Structuralism and Poststructuralism

• Structuralism: Social structures determine behavior
  • Originates in Marx's economic classes
  • Extends to social roles (e.g., Claud Lévi-Strauss)
• Poststructuralism: Questioning the Enlightenment thesis, influence of postmodernism

Postmodernism

• Denial of Enlightenment Thesis:
  • Truth: No universal truths, all truths are social constructions
  • Knowledge: Objective knowledge is impossible
  • Reason: Questioned as a means of oppression
  • Progress: Prioritize liberation over progress
• Key Concepts: Difference, repetition, hyper-reality
• Cultural Influence: Gains popularity in the late 20th century

Key Figures

• Jacques Derrida: Deconstruction, "everything is a text"
• Gary Alworth: Postmodern thought definitions

Criticisms of Postmodernism

• Self-Refuting Nature: The theory itself is a theory
• Unintelligibility: Complex jargon and random generation
• Potential for Fascism: Reason dismissed as oppression leads to power dominance

Noteworthy Comments

• Describing Reality vs. Fiction: No principal distinction
• Conceptual Mediation: Our access to ourselves and the world is mediated by concepts

Relativism and Skepticism

• Quine's Indeterminacy
  • Radical indeterminacy of what language is about
  • The jungle linguist thought experiment: "Gavagai" could mean rabbit or much more
  • No fact of the matter about what language describes
• Quine's Relativism: There’s no fact of the matter about what there is or what we believe in

Summary

• Postmodernism challenges traditional Enlightenment views, questioning the concept of absolute truths, objective knowledge, and reason. It influences various fields and becomes part of popular culture despite its complex and often criticized nature.
• Quine pushes the boundary further with radical skepticism about language and reality, questioning our ability to truly determine what exists or what we believe exists.