Postmodern architecture, such as that of Frank Gehry, explores nonlinear structures.
"Modernity" is the term denoting the period since the end of European feudalism, ushered in by the Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution. Modernism is the attitude of modernity, which embraces logic, science and technology as a solution to the problems of human suffering.
Postmodernity is the period since World War I in which the modernist belief in the benefits of science, logic and technology are called into question. Postmodernism is the attitude of postmodernity, which questions the privileged ideologies of modernity. Postmodernity is the period that follows modernity.
Philosophy
The Western philosophical tradition originated in Ancient Greece. The period of time from the "golden age" of Greek philosophy, commencing with Socrates and Plato, to the publication of Immanuel Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason" established the foundation of modernist philosophy. Known as analytic philosophy, the modernist ideas of mathematical models, logic and a search for ultimate truths and facts are celebrated in the analytic tradition.
With the publication of Kant's "Critique," a split occurred in Western philosophy. Kant called into question the modernist ideology. Thinkers such as G.W.F. Hegel, Edmund Husserl, Friedrich Nietzsche and Martin Heidegger followed Kant in challenging the analytic, modern tradition in what is known as the continental approach. It was from the continental philosophical tradition that postmodern thinking was born.
Postmodern philosophy shares a great deal with the teachings of the ancient Greek sophists. Some argue that postmodernism is the current manifestation of the sophist tradition.
Grand Narratives
Modernism is marked by the search for grand narratives. Grand narratives include any all-encompassing, linear histories and systems that propose definite explanation. Unified scientific theories, political and economic models, history and religious systems are all based on narrative stories. Modernistic belief in development, progress and mechanistic models of cause and effect all share a storylike narrative that Nietzsche referred to as myth.
Postmodernism rejects the grand narratives of religion, economics, politics, science and linear history. In its place, postmodernism proposes nonlinear histories, perspectivism, isolated events and language games.
Knowledge Versus Information
While modernism speaks of knowing facts, postmodernism speaks of arguing information, or debating facts, much like that of sophist methodology. According to postmodern thought, facts can only exist within the rules of a given language-game context. As proposed by Ludwig Wittgenstein, "language, thought and reality share a common structure, fully expressible in logical terms."
Enlightenment as a Captivation-in-an-Acceptedness
The Enlightenment marks the beginning of the modernist ideology. Thinkers such as Ren Descartes and Isaac Newton ushered in an age that celebrates the scientific method, logic, mathematics and progress. Although many today would not question these ideologies, postmodern thinkers do raise questions.
Edmund Husserl described the unquestioning of ideology as a captivation-in-an-acceptedness. In this way, postmodernity views the Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution as an ideological position that most people never think to question, yet shapes what they believe reality to be.
Architecture
The Seagram Building in New York City is an example of modernist architecture.
Modernism and postmodernism can be seen in architecture. An example of modern architecture is the Seagram Building in New York City, by Philip Johnson and Mies Van der Rohe. Postmodern architecture could include the nonlinear, deconstructivist architecture of Frank Gehry.
