Hope in America: Lyotard and Rorty, Dobson and Obama, and the struggle to maintain hope in postmodern times.

摘要

This dissertation is a reflection on the status of hope in postmodern America. Emerging from the assumption that postmodern critiques of objective knowledge have significantly challenged the vitality of many American's hopes, and seeking, in part, to address this problem, I here make two broad arguments. First, I argue that postmodern challenges to objective truth need not signal the demise of hope. Second, I argue that the very same conditions which give rise to postmodern critiques of objective knowledge likewise provide exciting possibilities for reinvigorating hope in our current climate.;In Chapter 1, I offer an extended reflection upon the changing status of hope as demonstrated by my own historic pilgrimage. In chapter 2, I consider in detail Jean Francois Lyotard's The Postmodern Condition as well as various works by Richard Rorty. Relying heavily upon insight from these two theorists, I identify what I refer to as paralogic communication, a type of communication that depends upon narrative legitimation and that relies heavily upon the possibility of perpetually redescribing the world. As I explain, paralogic communication, both for Lyotard and Rorty, offers a way of sustaining hope while simultaneously rejecting objective truth.;In Chapters 3 and 4, I examine various communicative artifacts by two different individuals: James Dobson and Barack Obama. Simply put, the goal here is to show that Dobson, particularly through his treatment of homosexuality and his vision for the American family, fails to enact paralogic communication as a way of describing a future, hopeful America. Even so, Dobson continues to engender hope within those who are convinced by his appeals. Obama, on the other hand, represents an exemplar of the employment of paralogy within our current, postmodern context. As I argue, such a vision of paralogy emerges from Obama's reliance upon America's self-description as codified in the Declaration of Independence and simultaneously illuminates the theme of hope at the center of his presidential campaign. Moreover, I argue that such paralogic communication helps to make sense of the considerable support that Obama has garnered in recent months.;Taken together, I argue, the combined testimony of Lyotard, Rorty, Dobson, and Obama (a) bring into focus some of the greatest philosophical, communicative, and social challenges facing America today and yet nevertheless; (b) point toward numerous possible articulations of hope in postmodern America.