Why Postmodernism Is a Dead-End Road

The French philosopher Jacques Derrida, the poster child for postmodernism, probably thought he was clever when he refused to call himself a postmodernist. He preferred to call himself a man of  the Enlightenment, albeit a new Enlightenment, one that was enlightened about the Enlightenment and resisted letting the spirit of the Enlightenment freeze over Dogma (Caputo and Scanlon, God, the Gift and Postmodernism, p. 2).

Apparently Derrida didn’t think through that statement very thoroughly, because he didn’t consider that his “new Enlightenment” could be trumped by a “newer Enlightenment.” So before anyone else does it, I declare myself a man of the Enlightenment, albeit one who is enlightened about Derrida’s enlightenment about the Enlightenment, and who resists letting the spirit of Derrida’s enlightenment about the Enlightenment freeze over dogma.