Developmental philosophy and postmodernism

Jos De Mul

Michiel Korthals

pp. 245-260

in: Wouter van Haaften, Michiel Korthals, Thomas Wren (eds), Philosophy of development, Berlin, Springer, 1997

Abstract

In the preceding chapter we have situated our philosophy of development in the landscape of modern and contemporary philosophy. In this chapter we will take a position against the criticisms of the notion of development raised by so-called postmodern philosophers such as Lyotard, Foucault, and Derrida. Although postmodernism is difficult to define and — because of the dissemination of meaning to be discussed below (section 4) — many of the philosophers associated with it even deny that such a definition is possible, the critique of the typical modern notion of "development" is without doubt one of the most striking characteristics of this heterogeneous group of thinkers. Surely, postmodernism is right in pointing at some problematic and sometimes dangerous aspects of traditional theories of development. For that reason we believe this criticism is highly relevant for any philosophy that wants to avoid these problems and dangers. However, in this chapter we will argue that these criticisms do not hold for the philosophy of development elaborated in this book. Moreover, we will try to show that when it is so understood, philosophy of development is in many respects more able than postmodernist theories to give a fruitful interpretation of changes in the conceptual frameworks of individuals and collectives.

Cited authors

Derrida Jacques

Foucault Michel

Lyotard Jean-François