Super!Geek, 2/11, Habermas

According to Habermas, “The most recent modernism simply makes an abstract opposition between tradition and the present.” The very classification of modernity comes into question with Habermas because every era post-Renaissance acts under the impression of being 'modern'. In Habermas's terms, modernity is a set of problems related to a concept of subjectivity. Under this subjectivity, anything that seeks to reform or transform traditional conceptions of thought qualifies as a modern perspective. Further, the practice of creating new thought is a modern quality, meaning that new ideas and philosophies qualifies an era as modern.

“Of course, what can survive time has always been considered classic. But the emphatically modern document no longer borrows this power of being a classic from the authority of a past epoch; instead, a modern work becomes a classic because it has been authentically modern.” By this credo, even our own ideas surrounding post-modernity could and likely will one day seem traditional. The concepts of traditionalism and modernism are almost solely confined to the time in which they are imposed. If that thought or philosophy can weather the shift in ideals and values that occurs with each era and epoch, it is inevitable that it will still end up a relic of the past. It is only through the pursuit of new thought that modernity can evolve and remain relevant… but it still seems so confusing because how post-modernity fit into an era like modernity that doesn’t even seem to exist in a salient manner. Is post-modernity in itself just a flashy version of modernity, in that it is our foundation for our current, or modern, conception of the world? According to Habermas, “Modernity revolts against the normalizing functions of tradition; modernity lives on the experience of rebelling against all that is normative.” This definition in itself sounds like the common conception of post-modernity. Which is to say, that Habermas, as much as I like him, has answered one question only to fuel twenty more, and just a little more confused.