March 1998, Volume 24, No. The postmodern turn has many layers. Socially, postmodernity is related to shifts in capitalism at the end of the twentieth century and the communications revolution. Culturally, shifts in the arts and of course the media are easily documented.
Religious renewal is also part of the mix.
I want to focus here on philosophical aspects of the postmodern turn, while being alert to this as only one aspect of the total picture. I suggest that philosophically the postmodern turn represents a time of foundational crisis as the tensions and internal contradictions of modernity play themselves out. Epistemology Postmodernity has raised all sorts of questions about our capacity to know and how we know and whether we can accurately represent reality i.e., about epistemology . The possibility of universal objective knowledge is considered by many to be impossible. Much postmodern theory is strongly antirealist and considers all knowledge to be local, communal, and a human construct.