Beskrivning
Beskrivning
Thisbook explores the origins of the academic culture wars of the late 20thcentury and examines their lasting influence on the humanities andprogressive politics. It puts us in a position to ask this question:what to make now of those furious debates over postmodernism,multiculturalism, relativism, critical theory, deconstruction,post-structuralism, and all the rest? In an effort to arrive at a fairjudgment on that question, the book reaches for an understanding ofpostmodern theorists by way of two genres they despised and hopes, forthat very reason, to do them justice. It tells a story, and in thetelling, advances two basic claims: first, that thephenomenological/hermeneutical tradition is the most suitable source oftheory for a humanism that aspires to be universal; and, second, thatthe ethical and political aspect of the human condition is authenticallyaccessible only through narrative. In conclusion, it argues that thepostmodern moment was a necessary one, or will have been if we rise tothe occasion and seize the opportunity it offers: a truly universalhumanism might yet be realized even in—or perhaps especially in—thisatavistic hour of parochial populism.
