“I use the word postmodernism to draw a crowd,” said John Caputo.
“In history, I believe they will label this period of time as late modernity,” he said as he answered my question about how future writers would label this period of thought.
Caputo did a second lecture at King College Wednesday evening on “Prophetic or Messianic Postmodernism.”
He compared two different types of postmodern philosophy in very basic terms, one being Nietzsche’s brand and the other being the brand of Soren Kierkegard.
Caputo’s belief was that both forms, if postmodernism could be broken down into two forms, were misunderstood.
“When most people speak of postmodernism they speak of the brand of Nietzsche’s,” said Caputo.
He only spoke for an hour, omitting some of what he would have liked to say concerning the issue of every essential fact of both the Nietzsche and Kierkegard philosophies.
In this article, I’m going to recount the brand of philosophy that Caputo labeled as Nietzsche’s.
Usually, Nietzsche’s philosophy is used as a weapon on one group’s side firing at the other.
Caputo pointed out that writings such as Nietzsche’s have been changed over the years or interpreted wrongly.
“The God is dead remark is not just a belief that God is dead, but a statement of the whole intellectual order eroding away,” he said.
“If I had to present a picture of postmodernism it would be a picture of a marble cake, with good and evil intertwining.”
If anyone reading this article has seen the second Lord of the Rings movie, the character Gollum perfectly portrays the marble cake picture.
It is a picture of a society full of schizophrenics where good and evil constantly battle one another.
When everything is an aesthetic illusion, the true picture is hard to find and the meaning is hidden or impossible to grasp.
“The final word is that there is no final word.”
Each person has their own answer, their own end.
Caputo talked of the right wing making Nietzsche the devil himself and the modernist left shooting equally as rapid.
“There has been an over reaction but an understandable over reaction,” said Caputo.
Nothing in postmodernism is absolute; not science, not God, absolutely not absolutes.
After listening to Caputo lecture for two evenings each person has to make up his or her own mind concerning truth.
Make up your own mind and weigh things out. Are there absolutes or not?
Which philosophy can hold its own, which one remains consistent?
Do you see the postmodern idea taught in the classroom today, no truth just points of view?
Remember, philosophies and theories change over time.
Make an effort while in college to seek out the foundation of ideas.
In a later article I will write about Caputo’s second half of the “Prophetic postmodern” lecture.

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