The postmodern worldview and its impact on critical thinking

The Postmodern Worldview The postmodern worldview is pervasive, and affects our attitudes, beliefs, and ability to think critically. One of the cornerstones of the postmodern worldview is encapsulated in the statement “true and not true.” The “true and not true” mindset discounts the existence of objective truth. All truth is relative, according to the postmodern worldview. The postmodern worldview is especially relevant to religious ideologies and the desire to support multiple truths in a pluralistic universe. Unfortunately, the postmodern worldview prevents critical thinking. Postmodernism has led to a “post-truth” society, in which it can be difficult to recognize even the value in empirical evidence (Chen, 2017). There are certainly situations in which there are no absolute truths, but there are certainly absolute truths in areas of math and science, where the methodologies are clear. As the video “True and Not True” points out, there is no relative truth when it comes to eating a poison mushroom. Eating a poison mushroom will result in illness or death, no matter what a person believes. Therefore, it is often important to reject the “true and not true” mentality. Postmodernism can be especially detrimental for critical thinking related to morality and ethics. Moral and ethical relativism are postmodern to the core. As appealing as open-mindedness can be, this mentality can lead to dangerous behaviors and attitudes such as condoning violence and hatred. Just as there are absolute truths when it comes to math or whether a mushroom is poisonous or not, there are also absolute truths in the realms of ethics and morals. According to the video, scripture cannot be both true and not true at the same time, just as a mushroom cannot be poisonous and edible at the same time. Whether a person believes in the Bible or not has no bearing on the truth of the Bible or of the teachings of Jesus. Option A: Analysis of the Worldview Although postmodernism can lead to spurious beliefs, ultimately it does provide a rational framework for assessing the truth and can in fact stimulate critical thinking. For absolute truths to emerge even in the realm of morals and ethics, we must agree upon the principles that guide ethical behavior. Those principles can be universal but not necessarily grounded in any specific religion or sacred text. Christians base their truths on scripture. Herein lies one of the more rational and beneficial aspects of postmodern theory: for something to be determined to be absolutely true, there must be higher standards of truth. Unlike mathematics or science, scripture is not considered a legitimate benchmark of assessing absolute truth. More appropriate benchmarks of moral truth include assessing how one’s behaviors affect others. Behaviors that cause other people pain, or which undermine the tenets of social justice, can generally be considered immoral. However, behaviors cannot be assessed as moral or immoral based on whether they ascribe to a specific religious text. It is possible to allow for the “true and not true” mentality when it comes to assessing the value of faith. Faith is a psychological state, but it is not universal truth. A child can believe in ghosts or in Santa Claus; those beliefs are grounded in something akin to faith. For a child, belief in Santa Claus offers a sense of hope and wonder during the Christmas season and a belief that a higher spiritual power will bestow gifts to reward good behavior throughout the year. A parent would gladly indulge the “true and not true” mentality when it comes to their child’s innocent but faulty faith in Santa. Belief in God also provides psychological salve and the means by which to identify with a social or cultural group. Postmodernism is therefore useful when it comes to accepting pluralism and heterogeneity, but irrelevant when it comes to establishing the ground rules for social justice. The law and norms of human behavior should be based on universal ethical truths.