POSTMODERNISM – THE MAIN IDEAS AND THEIR SOCIAL AND POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to show the causal relationship between the philosophical ideas of postmodernism, as well as its cultural expression and the socio-political situation of the modern West, which the author of the article describes as a civilizational decline.
The article examines the context of the emergence of postmodernism as the dominant worldview today in the Western world, as well as its main philosophical ideas, such as deconstruction, transgression, anti-logocentrism, loss of trust in metanarratives, skepticism in relation to the concept of truth, moral relativism, and others. The author of the article examines the evolution of postmodernism, which has taken place over the past half century, passing from academia, through various spheres of culture to political activism and the lives of ordinary people. The article places special emphasis on the consequences of postmodern ideas in the social and political life of the West. In this context, the phenomenon of post-truth politics, the sexual revolution, the political polarization of societies, social engineering and, in general, the crisis of Euro-Atlantic civilization are analyzed. Postmodernism is seen as the decadence of European culture. In the conclusion, the context of the war and state-building in Ukraine and the connection of their prospects with the spiritual and civilizational condition of the West appears.