Where did postmodernism come from?
Its roots are multiple, including trends in literary criticism, anthropology, linguistics, psychoanalysis, psychology, philosophy, feminism, the arts, etc. Several names have been more prominently associated with this movement, such as Jacques Derrida, Lyotard, Michel Foucault, but many people find these writers a bit extreme and obscure. I suspect that some precursors may also be found in the previous intellectual fashion, existentialism. One of the earliest statements that suggests a postmodernist view is from Friederich Nietzsche, who said, “All knowledge is perspective.” This means that any fact or belief is embedded within a frame of reference. A related, earlier, precursor is Socrates’ dictum, “Know thyself,” because, simply, knowing thyself isn’t all that easy. People fool themselves, and they do so in order to serve not only vanity, but also social and economic position. One of my favorite quotes is from the comedian, Robin Williams, who played an extra-terrestrial visiting Ear
