Postmodernism: an attempt at an approach from the History of Thought

Abstract

Traditionally, History is divided into four periods that succeeded one after another all along the temporal plot: Antiquity, Middle Ages, Modern period and Contemporary period. However, from another point of view, we can distinguish between pre-modern, then modern, and thirdly post-modern thought. Focusing on the latter one, several questions emerge. How can postmodernism be defined? Can such a paradigm be understood in chronological terms? Has this moment really come? And if that is the case, does it have an expiration date? The aim of the present paper is to define postmodernism from an historic point of view, and to study, in three parts, the possible stages of its emergence, its main outstanding features, and the question of its limits.