ABSTRACT
The possibility of, and the language of, self-definition and self creation arises as a consequence of the social conditions of late modernity/post-modernity. Those consequences include the breakdown of rigid and/or ascribed social order(s) and the development of individualistic conditions of consciousness. These conditions have permitted, even demanded, self-interpretation and have permitted, even demanded, a clear conception of individual action. The decline of arguments from necessity and the rise of, and appeal of, arguments to radical contingency have arisen for several reasons. Among the most focused of those reasons have been the so-called ‘death of God’ arguments that have been in circulation since F. Nietzsche. The details of the argument are often quite complex, but its general structure is fairly straightforward. The expression of modality is never merely poetic, but always rooted in action in and across a range of spaces. To be modal is to be in a variety of different situations, in a variety of alternative possible worlds.
