Jean-Francois Lyotard 1924 – 1998

Jean-Francois Lyotard was a 20th-century French philosopher, sociologist, and literary theorist, one of the leading figures of post-structuralism and a central exponent of postmodernism in philosophy. His 1979 work The Postmodern Condition, originally a report on the state of knowledge in advanced industrial societies, defined the postmodern as incredulity toward grand narratives and shaped subsequent discussion of postmodernism in philosophy, literature, and the social sciences. His major systematic work The Differend developed an account of incommensurable language games and the political stakes of finding voice for those silenced by dominant discourses. His earlier work, including Discours, Figure and Libidinal Economy, engaged with phenomenology, psychoanalysis, and Marxism. He was a co-founder of the College International de Philosophie in Paris.