Post/Modernity? How to Separate the Stereo from the Styrofoam

Sometimes we have difficulty unpacking things, even in this technological age–especially when it comes to unpacking the meaning of the age itself. But is there a more commonly (and often polemically) misunderstood philosophical term in wide circulation today than “postmodernism”? 1 (“Liberalism,” perhaps, though I argue that these two controversial concepts can be most charitably and so compellingly understood when connected, as Liakos intimates.) 2 Liakos’s eloquent and attractive presentation of Gadamer’s “rehabilitation” of modernity as an “alternative” to Heidegger’s postmodernism is important and insightful, especially in its more sympathetic portrayal of Gadamer’s views. Liakos nicely justifies his preference for Gadamer, but Gadamer’s own principle of hermeneutic charity teaches that our interpretations tend to become less plausible as our sympathies wane. Indeed, despite finding myself mostly in agreement with Liakos’s impressively thoughtful essay, a few small but crucial details from Liakos’s most critical conclusions led me to think that even the best students of Heidegger’s thought might benefit from a brief unpacking of Heidegger’s own endeavor to envision a genuinely meaningful postmodernity, so that shall be my focus here.