Associated Thinkers and Contributors
Ágnes Heller's Contributions
Ágnes Heller (1929–2019), a Hungarian-born philosopher associated with the Budapest School, advanced neomodernism through her moral anthropology, which reconciles classical ethical ideals with modern freedoms to foster a reflexive humanism. Her work, particularly as analyzed in Ecce Homo, integrates ancient concepts of virtue, beauty, harmony, and happiness with modernity's emphases on imagination, life, and freedom, aiming to enhance modernity's capacity for self-understanding without succumbing to relativism.[9]
Employing a dialectical method, Heller elucidates the human condition by drawing on Epicurean notions such as euhexia (well-being) and katastematike hedone (stable pleasure), proposing a constitutional order of desires that balances existential aspirations with rational restraint.[9] This framework critiques modernity's predatory tendencies—such as unchecked individualism or instrumental reason—while probing its potential for ethical evolution, rejecting both nostalgic idealization of antiquity and uncritical apologetics for the present.[9]
In contrast to postmodernism's deconstructive cynicism and anti-Enlightenment irrationalism, which Heller spurned alongside thinkers like Jürgen Habermas, her anthropology envisions a non-predatory humanism that merges ancient existential wisdom with modern contingency and choice.[9][14] This positions neomodernism as a renewal of modernist rationality, grounded in empirical reflection on human needs and moral agency rather than radical skepticism. Her emphasis on ethical contingency within modernity's "dissatisfied society" underscores neomodernism's commitment to causal realism in social theory, prioritizing verifiable human potentials over abstract deconstructions.[14]
Victor Grauer's Perspectives
Victor Grauer, an American writer, poet, and media artist, articulated neomodernism primarily in the context of artistic practice and theory, positioning it as a deliberate revival of authentic modernist principles amid the perceived exhaustion of postmodern approaches. In his essay "Modernism/Postmodernism/Neomodernism," Grauer defines neomodernism as "a return to the most fundamental tenets of 'formalist' modernism," specifically referencing early 20th-century movements such as Cubism (exemplified by works like Picasso and Braque's Les Demoiselles d’Avignon), Piet Mondrian's geometric abstractions, and Arnold Schönberg's atonal compositions.[8] This return emphasizes a dialectical artistic process that resolves perceptual ambiguities into precise determinations, fostering an "order of sensuousness" that liberates sensory experience from imposed signification or cultural baggage.[8]
Grauer critiques postmodernism as a derivative revival of what he terms "C" modernism—a reflexive, skeptical strand exemplified by Marcel Duchamp's Fountain (1917), which prioritizes irony, deconstruction, and anti-art gestures over constructive form. He argues that postmodernism, with its pluralism and "cult of the new," devours its own foundations through endless novelty-for-novelty's sake, rendering it unsustainable and self-destructive without viable evolution.[8] In contrast, neomodernism aligns with "A" modernism's core disruption of conventional form to embrace the ordinary, rejecting both the spiritual pretensions of "B" modernism (late romantic extensions) and the futility of "C" reflexivity. Grauer views modernism not as a historical style but as an ongoing disciplinary foundation for art, demanding rigorous theoretical engagement over superficial experimentation.[8]
In practice, Grauer applied neomodernist principles to his own experimental films, such as Composition 1 (16mm, black-and-white, sound, 1.25 minutes), which he described as "one of my first ventures into neomodernism." This work employs strips of clear and opaque leader alternating with white noise and silence in a strictly canonic, serial structure, drawing inspiration from Mondrian's reductionism, Stan Brakhage's visual rhythms, and Peter Kubelka's structural austerity to achieve perceptual precision without narrative or symbolic overlay.[15] Through such efforts, Grauer's perspectives underscore neomodernism's cultural role in countering postmodern fragmentation by reinstating universal aesthetic values rooted in form and sensory authenticity, applicable beyond visual arts to broader media and theoretical discourse.[8]
Carlos Escudé's Formulations
Carlos Escudé, an Argentine political scientist, developed formulations of neomodernism that emphasize ethical and cultural hierarchies as a counter to postmodern relativism, arguing that not all cultures are morally equivalent. In his 2004 paper, he contends that assuming cultural equivalence logically denies universal human rights, since some cultures systematically violate them by awarding greater rights to certain groups based on gender, religion, or status.[10] He posits that cultures recognizing the principle that "all men are created equal" hold moral superiority, enabling consistent application of rights without internal contradictions.[10]
Escudé extends this to epistemological grounds, asserting superiority for cultures that foster scientific advancement and improve human welfare, such as increasing life expectancy through empirical inquiry.[10] He critiques relativism as self-contradictory and nihilistic, incompatible with evolutionary progress, and rejects postmodern denials of objective truth as empirically disproven.[10] Under neomodernism, a single natural law underpins universal rights, permitting "double standards" in practice—such as historical interventions like Britain's abolitionist campaigns—to advance ethical standards globally.[10]
Central to his framework is the "neomodern imperative" of just war: defending superior liberal-secular cultures against threats from inferior ones constitutes a moral duty, particularly in asymmetric conflicts like post-9/11 scenarios, where hegemonic powers must prioritize survival and power to enforce rights.[10] Escudé argues that relativism undermines such defenses, potentially leading to civilizational decline, and advocates hierarchies where dominant cultures impose standards to prevent regression.[10]
In his 2016 book Neomodernismo: filosofía de las jerarquías, Escudé systematizes these ideas into a philosophy rejecting radical egalitarianism ("naides es más que naides"), positing inherent differences in value across individuals, cultures, and systems based on their alignment with rational, rights-affirming principles.[16] This work integrates his peripheral realism, applying neomodern hierarchies to international relations, where peripheral states must navigate core powers' ethical dominance without illusory moral equivalence.[17] His formulations prioritize causal realism in global ethics, favoring empirically verifiable progress over ideological symmetry.[10]