The Weight of Words

The modern mentality worries me. And by modern, I mean post-modern. I know it's perceived to be accepting and open-minded, but I find its wateriness more than a little disconcerting. Not least because much of post-modernism accords no concrete meaning to words.

As a translator I find words that oftentimes have such a concrete meaning that they are too weighty to move easily from one language to another.

Based on what I have gathered so far, I have put together some definitions--which I believe have some staying power--for the following words:

Post-modernism: A philosophy in which the self is the source, interpreter and purveyor of all and in which nothing can be weighed against anything else, for nothing is accorded weight.

Pluralism (particularly religious pluralism): Homogenization; more specifically, the imposition of Western Academic values upon the religions of the world. See post-modernism.