On sources and singularities of postmodernist pluralism

In the article sources, premises and essence of pluralism in postmodernist philosophy are analyzed. In the beginning the content of concepts "pluralism" and "relativism" is described in short; the attention to its ambiguity is paid. Ancient Greek sophistry is considered as one of the early sources of pluralism and relativism. Having a pragmatist component, many authors consider postmodernism differently concerning the premises. In the article we consider W. James's position as one of the major premises of postmodernist pluralism, and his criticism of the absolutes and the empty, ineffective abstractions anticipated much in postmodernism. In particular, James's thought that pluralism is a natural consequence of his doctrine of radical empiricism is underlined. The latter is, mainly, ontological pluralism by James. The close connection of postmodernist pluralism with R.Rorti's philosophy and with his criticism of Platonism and of the traditional concept of representation is shown. One of the consequences of this criticism is the refusal from the traditional correspondence conception of truth which, finally, results in pluralism and relativism. Thereupon, the concept of a simulacrum and its role in the development of ideas of pluralism is considered. In the article it is marked that postmodernism developed against antagonism of two hard lines - traditional epistemological and pragmatist. The basis of pragmatist strategy in postmodernism is the idea about a truly creative nature of the person who creates truths, instead of discovering them. Thus, the true becomes contextual, pluralistic. The major sphere of life activity of the creative person is language and speech communications where the person expresses oneself, constructing the experience as some kind of a text. As a result, the meaning of concept "pluralism" was transformed from the traditional ontological and gnoseological meaning to a variety of more concrete meanings with expansion of the sphere of its applicability to social and cultural areas. However, even in traditional spheres there was its concretization: methodological pluralism branches off from gnoseological pluralism, and the area of pluralism of realities is allocated in ontological pluralism - pluralism of simulacrum in postmodernism and pluralism of value of diversity in modern natural sciences. Nevertheless, despite the expanded set of versions of pluralism, they something in common: connection with such ideas as the idea of relativity, the idea of flexibility, the idea of justification of diversity, the idea of correspondence to a context.

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