>With nothing beyond the discredited stage 4 to look forward to, it is mostly no longer possible for humanities majors to develop a rational, systematic self.

As I understand it, the article says that Stage 5'ers are burning the bridge to 4 because stage 4 is perceived as unsophisticated, but Stage 4 is required to grow to Stage 5. If 4 was required to reach 5, why would a 5'er work to discredit 4 - unless these 5'ers saw their Stage-4 self as useless?

Yes the article says that Stage 4 is necessary - but it also says that some Stage 5'ers are dismantling Stage 4 because some 5'ers think it's unsophisticated.

Unrelated - but oh lord I was at the Salvador Dali museum (Dali being an anti-rationalist artist) a few days ago and you could smell the pretense in the air. I didn't know I was going to the museum that day so I was dressed like a slobby, computer nerdy tourist. So many side remarks from the security guards and regular visitors - projecting their sophistication insecurities onto me! The insecure sophisticated anti-rationalists are real!

This is unfortunate misunderstanding. It's the deconstructive postmodernism that did the discreditation of Stage 4. Author in the paragraphs after "Deconstructive postmodernism" explains that first postmodernists were okay because they understood stage 4 rationality and they actually made forays toward stage 5. But their most vocal followers did not understood stage 4 at all and so they bastardized it.