The New Constellation: Ethical-Political Horizons of Modernity/Postmodernity

Rating:
Summary: Bridging Gulfs
Review: Bernstein points out in the Introduction his inability to combine the subsequent essays into a single theme, generative principle, or common core. His way of characterizing the refractory nature of these strands is to liken them to a "constellation", which by definition contains elements resisting integration into a unified whole. Thus, the image of constellation stands as the book's central metaphor, and a characterization of how Western philosophy stands following the emergence of the post-modern "Stimmung" or "mood". Put in Hegelian terms, the "other" remains other, because the post-modern negation of reason offers no prospect of being reconciled into a more comprehensive whole. I think it's fair to say that for Bernstein, the "post" in post-modernism really does mean post. And though Bernstein doesn't emphasize the word, a thoroughly pluralist landscape would appear to be the result, a pluralism perhaps uniquely beyond all measure of integration.

Those who see the missing yet vital connecting strand in the triumph of a consumer mentality may find the work inadequate from the standpoint of broader cultural analysis. It's true, Bernstein does stick closely to the narrower philosophical level. Nevertheless, each essay represents a penetrating discussion of major post-moderns and their precursors, figures such as Foucault, Derrida, and Heidegger, along with more diverse thinkers, like Rorty, Habermas and MacIntyre. For me, the two most revealing chapters are the discussion of Heidegger and technology and Rorty's liberal utopia. The former makes a revealing connection between Heidegger's philosophy of Being and his refusal to disavow a Nazi past; while the latter illuminates an important theoretical issue confronting the post-moderns--- how to finesse the paradoxes facing an anti-foundationalist politics as it seeks to avoid outright nihilism. Despite the work's breadth, this is by no means the flabby work of an eclectic. Bernstein's reputation is built upon a sympathetic and fair-minded understanding of both Anglo-American and Continental traditions. This work is certainly no exception.