LOGICAL AND MORAL DILEMMAS OF POSTMODERNISM

This article argues that postmodern approaches to anthropology typical ly display certain characteristic logical errors and are based on ques tionable assumptions about human thought and desire. Further, the libe rationist moral stance taken in postmodern discourse tends towards the excesses diagnosed by Hegel as 'the law of the heart'; that is, a rom antic solipsism that ignores the ambiguity and limits of human existen ce. The moral and theoretical problems of postmodernism are linked to the anomie of contemporary society, which presses beleaguered intellec tuals towards the use of interpretivist modes of thought. The article concludes by questioning the emancipating potential of postmodern theo ry that places imagination at the centre of anthropological inquiry, a nd argues instead for a reconsideration of the fundamental constraints and potentials of the human condition.