Monday, March 28, 2011

Lyotard - The Postmodern Condition

Lyotard, Jean-Francois. "The Postmodern Condition." From Alexander, Jeffrey C., and Steven Seidman. Culture and Society: Contemporary Debates. Cambridge [England]: Cambridge University Press, 1990.

Originally published 1984

Definition of Postmodern
"incredulity toward metanarratives...a product of progress in the sciences."

Argument
Postmodern condition has created a crisis in metaphilosophy and the university system that relies on it. The sciences have splintered into specialties, and the definitions between fields have become blurry.

Linguistically, because language is ever-changing and contains meaning which is individually determined, it is impossible for two people to speak with 100% understanding of the meaning each person is trying to convey.

"Consensus is a horizon that is never reached."

Connection
In some ways, I feel like Lyotard is talking about the same thing as Bell in "The End of Ideology in the West." Ideologies rely on metanarratives.

No comments:

Post a Comment