The Aesthetic Experience of Postmodernity

Abstract

The present work has as its object to analyze the advent of so called “postmodern” culture as the consequence of the very modernity from which it is sprung. Its origins are to be found inside the intellectual logic of enlightenment, whose result is thus a new kind of independent rational subject, one who places his own self-reflective judgement above the claim of external authorities. This process births forth a new type of scientific attitude with regards to nature. The enlightened subject no longer experiences the world as a sacred totality, rather, treats it merely as a continuous sequency of quantifiable data. Thus, the modern individual experiences a new kind of faith based on his ability to shape the world according to his needs. However, in the course of historical events, the modern individual loses his faith on the very concept of progress, after realizing it didn’t bring him closer towards the present happiness he envisioned, but rather, towards new global conflicts, climate change, risk of nuclear disaster, etc. This disillusionment with modernity’s promises has now brought us to a present lacking in historical narratives or clear objectives, in which every established authority loses its claim to legitimacy, and individuals fall into the aimless apathy of “capitalist realism”.