Modernism/Postmodernism and the Problem of Identity/Alterity

Modern philosophy, in short, is a comprehensive program and a system of knowledge according to which the whole universe is comprehensible by man alone. The center of this system is the self-conscious mind or the cognitive identity. In modern philosopher’s view, the validity of the system of knowledge, as well as its unity, is dependent on the self-conscious mind or its identity. According to Descartes, the self-consciousness of the mind as a conscious substance is the basis of all kinds of knowledge, including the physical and metaphysical ones. In contrast, philosophical postmodernism is a comprehensive discourse that opposes the self-sufficient system of knowledge and cognitive identity. The main postmodern philosopher’s concern is to establish a philosophical discourse by using the concept of "alterity" and linking it to other non-epistemic ideas. From the point of view of this article, neither the theory of identity and the relative epistemological ideas nor the concept of "alterity" and the accompanying pragmatic notions can establish and form an independent self-sufficient system of knowledge or a non-epistemic dominant philosophical discourse.