The New Allusiveness and the Simulation of Metaphysics: A Hypermodern Experience from the Café Forgot Circle

Abstract

Classical metaphysics is no longer a credible basis for the practice of philosophy. Nevertheless, it is sometimes present in the form of aesthetic references. By evoking a specific vision of the world and values, it can shape the experience.

This article describes a phenomenon that the author calls the “New Allusiveness and the Simulation of Metaphysics.” Starting from empirical observation of youth fashion as presented on Instagram, the author draws attention to the ambivalent attitude of female artists towards metaphysicality. Their attitude appears to rely on an affirmative evocation with the simultaneous impression of fear or of the grotesque. Starting from the perspective of the cultural logic of hypermodernism, the author sees the need for a new kind of relationship to the values associated with modernism and postmodernism. The author notes that there has been a change in attitudes to irony and a lack of interest in depth. These have been replaced with a sense of hope, with faith, presupposition, and the possibility of meaning and order; however, being kept at a distance and lined with cynicism, they take on a simulacral character.