Video

Pavlov Alexander: Post-postmodernism and Traditional Values

Speaker: Pavlov Alexander, Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAN), Russia, Doctor of Philosophy, Professor and Head of the School of Philosophy and Cultural Studies at the Department of Humanities of the Higher School of Economics, Head of the Social Philosophy Sector at the RAN Institute of Philosophy

Subject of report: Post-postmodernism and Traditional Values
Abstract

A lot has happened since 2002, when one of the main postmodern theorists Linda Hutcheon announced that postmodernism was over. A great number of concepts appeared whose authors claimed that their theories would form a new language for the description of the contemporary historical period (from 2002). Some examples are altermodernism (Nicolas Bourriaud), neomodernism (Jeffrey Alexander), hypermodernism (Gilles Lipovetsky), metamodernism (Robin van den Akker) and others.

However, many philosophers and scholars kept thinking in terms of a ”post”- dimension (”post-irony”, ”post-truth”, etc.), even though the new concepts within the public discourse were supposed to offer an alternative to postmodernism. Whatever was meant by those different labels, which could be described by the generic term ”post-postmodernism”, different authors often assume that seriousness, sincerity, multidimensionality, naivety and so on have returned to the ”structure of feeling” (Reymond Williams) of modern culture.

In this regard, what is called “traditional values” in Russia may represent an alternative to postmodernism as a philosophical concept, too. Thus, ”traditional values” could even become and, possibly, already are an alternative to what is called post-postmodernism.