THEORIES OF POSTMODERNITY: SOCIAL PROJECT? SOCIAL FORECASTING? UTOPIA?

Abstract

Introduction. An urgent task of philosophy and other social sciences is to analyze to what extent the characteristics of the society that
replaced the Modern one, being represented in the postmodern theories, correspond to the realities of the ХХI century; how scientific
the mentioned social projects and forecasts turned out to be. The aim of the research is to comprehend the theories of Postmodernity
as those that outlined the characteristic features of the future society which beginning could be found in the bowels of Modernity at the
end of the XX century. The postmodern theories are being compared in order to identify the possibility of referring them to social
projects, social forecasting, or social utopias. Research methods. The research uses the cultural-historical and sociocultural
approaches, the comparative method, methods of logical and cultural-semantic analysis, hermeneutical procedures of interpretation and
understanding. Research results. The philosophical theories of Postmodernity of J.-F. Lyotard, P. Kozlowski, and W. Welch are
analyzed in order to determine the actualization of the ideas they set forth in the ХХ century. It is shown that the change in the role and
status of scientific knowledge and higher education is most represented in the concept of J.-F. Lyotard. The pragmatic nature of
transformations in the development of scientific knowledge in the Postmodern era is revealed. The concept of P. Kozlowski is largely
concerned with the harmonization of relations between scientific and religious knowledge. Discussion. The research presents the views
of F. Webster and a number of national philosophers on the main features of the Postmodern era, which relate to the development of
science and its legitimization in higher education in the XXI century. Conclusions. It is substantiated that J.-F. Lyotard's concept of
Postmodernity is the most developed in terms of understanding the changes in science and higher education. It is concluded that this
concept can be attributed to social forecasting. The ideas expressed by P. Kozlowski are considered to be rather utopian.