Postmodern Philosophy, Again?

Postmodernism is back, though not in the way that architects such as Sam Jacob have been proclaiming. The term postmodernism has reemerged far beyond the confines of academic discussions of architecture, in public debate by the new populist “intellectuals” of YouTube. Take Jordan Peterson, a professor and social media provocateur whose videos railing against political correctness regularly top six million views and attract a large fan base, especially of young teenage men on the right of the political spectrum. If a student of architecture today tries to search out an understanding of postmodernism on the web, they are likely to come across Peterson’s videos on postmodernism and from there its broader use on the so-called “Intellectual Dark Web.” This is likely where a student in my architectural theory class found Stephen Hicks’s disreputable book, Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault, a volume inspired by Peterson. And this book likely led him to think that there was no need to read excerpts of Jacques Derrida or Michel Fouca…