Abstract

I define modernism as composed of "Modernism I," the scientific-philosophical modernism which began during the Renaissance, and "Modernism II," our confused, many-faceted reaction to seeing the serious problems associated with Modernism I. Modernism I is described as an imbalance and dissociation two human modes, or themes, "transcendent-detached" and "immanent-participatory," and post-modernism as our attempt to re-balance and connect them. The study describes post-modernism, and recommends aspects of it which point toward viable alternatives to a now dangerously distorted and over-confining modernism. ;I discuss how "contemporary theory," our attempt to formulate alternatives to modernism on a theoretical-discursive level , can easily fall back into modernist thinking in the form of over-categorization, hierarchization, and linearization, using examples from my own work, from that of Hegel, and from theorist bell hooks. I then use a number of works both to develop my model, which I call "creative multiplicity," and to show its usefulness in helping us understand modern and post-modern cultural productions in philosophy/critical theory, art/literature, science, and religion. Included are works by Trinh T. Minh-ha, Stanley Cavell, Franz Kafka, Samuel Beckett, Ron Silliman, Douglas Hofstadter, Charles Peirce, Mikhail Bakhtin, Thomas Kuhn, and Clarice Lispector. ;The creative multiplicity model stresses dynamic interaction, acceptance of logical paradox, nonlinearity, and the importance and complexity of boundaries. It is perhaps most different from other models of post-modernism in its explicit connection between post-modern characteristics and science, in particular its connection to several aspects of chaos theory. Also significantly distinctive are its stresses on creativity, on individuality , and on the equal importance of unity, duality and multiplicity