Part I analysed Weber's theory and critique of the rationalization and disenchantment of the world (Chapters 2 and 3), and then two possible routes of resistance to this process, namely the pursuit of science (Chapter 4) and of politics (Chapter 5) as a vocation. The second half of this work explores thematic parallels between Weber's theory of the rationalization and disenchantment of modernity and the critiques of contemporary (Western) culture developed by Jean-François Lyotard (Chapter 7), Michel Foucault (Chapter 8) and Jean Baudrillard (Chapter 9). There are two main points of interest here: first, the way in which the these three "postmodern" theorists develop and extend (even if implicitly rather than explicitly) Weber's analysis of the rise, nature and trajectory of modern culture, and second, the way in which postmodern theory offers a transgressive response to the drive of modern rationalism, and thus an escape route from the ongoing rationalization and disenchantment of the world.¹ These questions, however, in themselves raise three key points of difficulty: first, what is meant by the term "postmodern"; second, in what sense are Lyotard, Foucault and Baudrillard "postmodern" theorists; and third, on what grounds may a reading between Weber and postmodern theory proceed?