The Postmodern Predicament: Existential Challenges of the Twenty-First Century
Bruce Ackerman
Apr 2024 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Jonathan Todd Ross
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9 hr 19 min
Unabridged
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About this audiobook
Human beings have taken one thing for granted since our earliest days: we are bodily creatures dealing with one another on a face-to-face basis. The internet has shattered this fundamental feature of human existence. We are suddenly living our lives in two worlds at once-shifting endlessly from virtual to physical reality as we reach out to others. Worse yet, we are developing different personal identities in our two worlds. We say and do things in virtual reality that flatly contradict our face-to-face commitments to family, friends, and fellow-workers-and vice versa. The Postmodern Predicament explores these dilemmas at each phase of the life cycle, beginning at the moment a young child picks up a cell phone. The existentialist tradition of the twentieth century provides a precious perspective on our postmodern dilemmas. Thinkers and doers like Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre considered the fragmentation of modern life as a central source of contemporary anxieties. Like them, Ackerman views the challenges of the internet age as a political, no less than personal, problem-and proposes concrete reforms that that could mobilize broad-based support for democracy against demagogic assaults on its very foundations.
About the author
Bruce Ackerman is Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University and the author of numerous books on political philosophy, constitutional law, and public policy, including Revolutionary Constitutions, Social Justice in the Liberal State, and the three-volume series We the People.
Jonathan Todd Ross has narrated over 120 audiobooks across a wide variety of genres. An Audie Award winner, he is also the recipient of numerous YALSA and AudioFile Earphones Awards. Jonathan loves narrating all genres, bringing the author's words to audio-life.
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