Communication relies on a certain amount of objectivity in the connection between language and reality, on the assumption of the truth of the laws of logic. Postmodern philosophy attempts to break that connection, but does so to its own detriment.
Dr. Sanity provides us a good quote on this subject that confirms and clarifies (
emphases added):
To the modernist, the "mask" metaphor is a recognition of the fact that words are not always to be taken literally or as directly stating a fact--that people largely use language elliptically, metaphorically, or to state falsehoods, that language can be textured with layers of meaning, and that it can be used to cover hypocrisies or to rationalize. Accordingly, unmasking means interpreting or investigating to a literal meaning or fact of the matter. The process of unmasking is cognitive, guided by objective standards, with the purpose of coming to an awareness of reality.
For the postmodernist, by contrast, interpretation and investigation never terminate with reality. Language connects only with more language, never with a non-linguistic reality....
For the postmodernist, language cannot be cognitive because it does not connect to reality, whether to an external nature or an underlying self. Language is not about being aware of the world, or about distinguishing the true from the false, or even about argument in the traditional sense of validity, soundness, and probability. Accordingly, postmodernism recasts the nature of rhetoric. Rhetoric is persuasion in the absence of cognition....
- Stephen Hicks, Explaining Postmodernism (Pgs 175-177)
Or as explained by Humpty Dumpty:
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean--neither more nor less.”
“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you CAN make words mean so many different things.”
“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master-- that's all.”
– Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass
Which explains this:
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