Grenz Review

TY 170 February 23, 2009 Grenz Review As time passes, different themes atomic number 18 presented throughout society. These themes t intercept to make attempts at disproving its predecessor. In Stanley J. Grenz book, A Primer on Post sophisticatedism, he discusses the two near recent roots supported by the public modernism and postmodernistististism. The opposition is apparent(a) between the geological eras of modernness and postmodernity. As described by Grenz, modernity focuses on the individual, using reasoning as a source of the uprightness. This belief causes virtue to be relative.Postmodernitys focal point is the classify, instead than the individual. Truth, in the postmodern view, is manufactured by intuition and feeling, causing it to be constructed. Grenz too discusses both the problems postmodernity airs on Christianity and the similarities between postmodernism and Christianity. Grenz portrait of postmodernism is accurate for what society is facing today. In order to understand the differences between modernism and postmodernism as Grenz has defined them, prototypical dread of how each was created is needed.Modernity is establish around meta-narratives stories that connect everyone together. The to the highest degree sonorous meta-narrative of modernity is the universal truth of science. One of the most important constructs of modernity is individualism, upon which whole modern thinkers based their exploit. Most historians suggest that the modern era was born when the profundity brought novel hope to war-ravaged Europe (57). The Enlightenment had 4 principles Reason, nature, autonomy, and harmony (68). These principles created the arse for modern thinkers. some modern thinkers throughout the era, regardless of their discipline, saturnine to the reasoning quash rather than divine revelation as the kickoff point for familiarity and reflection (65). through and through these foundations set for modernity, the modern philosop hers dark to science in support for their hypotheses. Thinkers such as Descartes, Newton, and Kant provided the intellectual foundation for the modern era (80). Rene Descartes was one of the first modern thinkers of his time, often cosmos referred to as the father of modern philosophy (63). When Descartes irst set out on his journey for knowledge, he set out with doubt, in search of arrogant truth that doubt could not deny (64). Like some different thinkers of that period, he Attempted to introduce the rigor of mathematical demonstration into every(prenominal) fields of knowledge, because he mootd that the truths of mathematics were to a greater extent concrete than knowledge based on observation (64). Descartes eventually reached the destination of his searching the one amour that could not be doubted was ones receive creation. His crude way of life of thinking led to a different brain of the military personnel person.His work defined The human being as thinking subst ance and the human person as an autonomous rational number subject (64). This current rendering supported Augustines philosophy Cogito ergo sum I think, thereof I am, (64). Although Descartes work did not let on subjectivity, the chief importance of his share lies in his emphasis on personal experience and personal knowledge, on knowledge arising from the individuals unique point of view (64). His subprogram in the Enlightenment paved the path for his modern-thinking successors.Following Descartes work, Newton began making his bear imprint on the creative activity, emphasizing the importance of science. His work focused on trying to explain the workings of his universe that he saw as a Grand, orderly machine, (67). Newtons idea of the humanity as a machine provided the framework for modernity. Newton deald that by viewing the mankind as a machine, he would be able to know its movements because it would companion a set of distinct laws (67). His design led modern thinke rs to view a mechanistic understanding of the globe, as opposed to a native view (50).Although Newton looked at the scientific explanations of the mankind, his intent was to explain the existence of God. ilk to Descartes, Newton used the power of reason to enhance the gist of theology. The modern world turned out to be Newtons mechanistic universe populated by Descartes autonomous, rational substance (67). through and through Newtons work, other philosophers had the foundation needed to make their own impressions on the world of modernity. withaltually, philosophers began sceptical the Enlightenment and modernity as a whole.Through Immanuel Kants work, he strengthened the ties between society and modernity, which associated himself with the beginning of the Enlightenment. Kants most important contri simplyion to modernity was his publication of Critique of splendid Reason (57). His critique strengthened the support of modernity and terminated all perplexitying of it. Kant sought to create a more concrete weapons platform for metaphysics through his writing (76). He hypothesized that the mind is systematical in organizing sensations from the outside world. agree to Kant, the human person is not only a creature subject of sense experience bus in like manner a moral being (77).Kant believed that by living morally, one lives the way he wishes all good deal would live. He argued that the moral aspect of human existence is basically rational (78). This view of existence created the realm of practical reason, which encouraged other modern philosophers to concentrate on the individual self. This attentiveness came from Kant introducing the idea that the self is not just the focus of philosophical attention but the entire subject matter of philosophy (79). Through this notion, Kant directed his attention to the individual luxurious existence.Kants work provided early philosophers with the concepts needed to understand and eventually interpret mod ernity. Johann Gottlieb Fichte operated off of Kants discoveries. He accepted Kants work but also Was enabled to explode it from the inside (87). Fichte did not want to eliminate Kants ideas, but instead wanted To expose the Kantian fiction of an accusing world existing in its own right beyond the self, (87). Through his work, Kant emphasized the idea that the self creates and determines the objects that constitute its own external world (87). Hence, the realm that Kant claims to know through pure reason, Fichte claims to produce through the arrange of practical reason (87). His work has created a freedom that is important because it holds the electric potential of liberating us from a single way of understanding the world, (88). Fichte managed to dis compute Kants idea of an absolute reality through eliminating the noumenal realm (88). Although he worked against Kant in many ways, Fichte managed to uphold Kants concept of the absolute self (87).Fichte, on with other thinkers, b eliefs led to what is now considered to be the postmodernism era by questioning the context of modernity and its constructors. Postmodernism is the mere rejection of the ideas that modernism and the Enlightenment support. The main hypothesis that postmodernism rejects is the construct of individualism. In its denunciation of modernism, it also rejects the modern theme of meta-narratives, however for its own. The postmodern world does not believe that all knowledge is good, nor that knowledge is objective. They view life on earth as fragile and believe that the continued existence of humankind is dependent on a new attitude of cooperation rather than conquest (7). Postmodern beliefs ask a more pessimistic view on the world, as opposed to the modern idea. Postmoderns believe that the world is historical, relational, and personal (7). The main postmodern view is that everything is different from everything (7). Many voices have joined the postmodern chorus. But of these, three loom as both central and paradigmatic Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, and Richard Rorty.They constitute a trio of postmodern prophets (123). Michel Foucault was persistent in the rejection of the modern worldview. He argued that reason and rational dissertate are problematic.. , because they require that we squeeze the variety of reality into the artificial homogeneousness that accommodates our concepts (127). His intentions were not to present the ideas of a better society, but to understand order. This new society that Foucault presented was called heterotopia, as opposed to the modern view of utopia (20).Foucault focused on the connection between knowledge and power in regards to social systems, stating that every interpretation of reality is an assertion of power (6). Foucault believed that this power was the power of furiousness (59). He used genealogy to gain a better understanding of how we arrived to the beliefs supported by society (135). According to Foucault, the practic e of genealogy informs us that history is not controlled by destiny or some restrictive mechanism but is the product of haphazard conflicts (136).He reveals himself to be the model postmodern by making the assertion that no natural order lies croupe what we invent through our use of voice communication (137). Foucault provided a new topic for the newly formed notion to be interpreted by future philosophers. Subsequent to Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida reinterpreted some ideas of postmodernism. Unlike Foucault, Derrida had different views on what was in dress about modernism. He focused on defying logocentrism The philosophical method that looks to the news show as the carrier of meaning (141).He began, in a sense, where Kant left of by questioning what foundation can we offer for our use of reason (140). Derrida was faultfinding of Western philosophers in saying that they view writing as a demonstration of speech. He spent his lifetime of work trying to deconstruct the idea that written language represents reality. Unlike Foucault, Derrida did not try to create new ideas for postmodernism on the basis of old ideas he rather deconstructed or disproved the foundations of modernism. Derrida wanted to demolish the modern construct that views philosophy as pure, munificent inquiry (148).Along with that, he also wanted to renounce the popular idea that there is a clear link between language and the external world, (148). Derridas primary polish is to divest us of logocentrism by video display the impossibility of drawing a clear line between reality and our linguistic representations (148). all overall, Derridas target for deconstruction was Western philosophy as a whole. The ideas represented by the philosophy were viewed as hopeless by Derrida. The notions that Derrida brought to the table allowed thinkers to move past the modern ways and seek resort hotel in postmodernism.After Derrida, came a philosopher with a new way of thinking, Richard Rorty. U nlike his predecessors, Rorty evince his belief in a clear style. Rorty is considered to be the central run into behind the renewed interest in the American pragmatist tradition (151). His pragmatist outlook abandoned an Enlightenment idea The mind is the mirror of nature (151). In pragmatism, the view of truth is that it is a result of human convention, thus it is constructed. Similar to Derrida, Rorty believes that language does not have the capability to represent the world accurately.He views language as a device used to satisfy ones wants and needs. Working against modernism, he also states that we give up the idea that the goal of science is to produce models that correspond perfectly with reality (154). Rorty believes that science is just one way to view the world, but there are many other ways to perceive it. Through the work of Foucault, Derrida, and Rorty, a new way of thinking was born which opened the world up for questioning. Postmodernism and Christianity have a work ing relationship. That is, Christians support and also disagree with some postmodern concepts.When postmodernism was first presented as an idea, Christians did not know how to approach it. A anguish that Christians have with the postmodern view is the rejection of meta-narratives. The concept of stories uniting a group as one is the foundation for Christianity. As Grenz states, We simply do not share the despair over the loss of universality that leads to the radical hesitancy of the emerging era (165). In addition to the rejection of meta-narratives, postmodernism focuses on the inability to discover an comprehensive truth. Here lies the major dilemma Christianity has with postmodernity.Christians believe that God includes the truth about everything, but postmodern thinkers do not believe that an all-encompassing truth is possible to reach (163). The postmodern rejection of individualism worries Christians because they moldiness always keep in view the biblical themes of Gods headache for each person, the responsibility of every human before God, and the individual orientation that lies within the salvation message (168). On the other hand, Christians support the rejection of the Enlightenment idea that the rational, scientific method is the sole measure of truth (166).Also, the postmodern denial that all knowledge is good and objective strengthens the ties between Christianity and postmodernism (168). Christians also support the postmodern finding that no person can be separate from creation. As years pass, Christians are more evaluate of postmodern concepts and are more rejecting of the modern ideas they once supported. Grenz view of the postmodern world is acceptable for what society faces today. The postmodern views have been mirrored throughout the public. Even in school, teachers focus more on group projects and group activities rather than the individuals.Children judge each other on the amount of time they unload with others, as opposed to the ability to spend time alone. Now, it is a must for children to always be with their friends. It is also represented in the working world. Bosses would like group presentations rather than individual. Most people do not like to be alone or even to be singled-out. Also, as the frugality is closer to being in a recession, the postmodern idea that the world is not getting better every day is strengthened. People no longer believe that humanity will be able to solve the worlds greatest roblems or even that their economic topographic point will surpass that of their parents, (7). Every day it seems as though the world is not capable to over buzz off what it has started, such as wars. It seems as though the world is no longer a happy place at most times. The postmodern pessimistic view is presented daily. It is awkward for others when people are optimistic about their life. Overall, people seem accepting to the postmodern views. Over the years, the world has seen different phases sweep through, and each one is eventually accepted. The most current themes are modernity and postmodernity.The modern views were set forth by Rene Descartes, Isaac Newton, and Immanuel Kant. Modernism is the idea of focusing on the individual in inwardness of scientific explanations. Also, modern thinkers believe that all knowledge is inherently good. Johann Gottlieb Fichte is partially responsible for the beginning of questioning modernity. Once Fichte opened the doors, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, and Richard Rorty put an end to the modern way of thinking. What their idea created was postmodernity. The postmodern thinker steps absent from the individual, focusing more on group relations.Also, postmodernism denies that all knowledge is essentially good. This new way of thinking has made Christians question how to respond. Christians agree, but also disagree with some of the postmodern views. As a whole, the world has come to terms with postmodernism by accepting it. What is goin g to happen when philosophers begin to question postmodernity? How will the world be viewed once people stop accepting postmodernism? Works Cited Grenz, Stanley J. A Primer on Postmodernism. Grand Rapids William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1996.