Author Date

2024-12-13

Degree Name

Department

Political Science

College

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Defense Date

2024-11-14

Publication Date

2024-12-13

First Faculty Advisor

Dr. Ralph C. Hancock

First Faculty Reader

Dr. Ryan Davis

Honors Coordinator

Dr. Darin Self

Keywords

metamodernism, postmodernism, decolonial theory, virtue ethics, Aristotle, political theory

Abstract

This thesis elaborates on a metamodern framework for grounding normative truth. Metamodernism is an evolving approach in the humanities and social sciences that seeks to reconcile stable truth with the genealogical skepticism of postmodernism. I follow Jason Ānada Josephson Storm in arguing that virtue ethics presents fertile ground for metamodernism with respect to normative truth.

I extend Storm’s preliminary approach to this subject by comparing it with the work of two other scholars: Pierre Manent — an Aristotelian virtue ethicist who has become very popular among Christian political theorists — and Amy Allen — a postmodern-inspired, decolonial theorist. Manent has written extensively on Aristotle’s applications to contemporary society, and I argue that his commentary begins to highlight the manner in which postmodernism can be reconciled with virtue ethics, even if he doesn’t address the issue directly. I use homologies between Storm and Manent’s approaches to reconstruct the formal qualities of metamodern virtue ethics. I then assess how this normative approach can be reconciled with postmodern decolonial theory. Allen addresses the question of postmodern decolonialism and normativity at length, providing a litmus test for the degree to which any given normative grounding violates the aims of decolonial theory and, by extension, the themes and convictions of genealogical critique.

I conclude that enduring, non-arbitrary normative truth can exist even if all normative rules are historically contingent, and even if the metaethical grounding for normative truth is malleable. Postmodern decolonial theory can be reconciled with stable moral truth via virtue ethics.