Jean-Francois Lyotard Quotes
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. The quotes below are attributed to Jean-Francois Lyotard, organized by topic.
Browse Jean-Francois Lyotard by topic
Jean-Francois Lyotard on Justice
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“Here is the question: is a legitimization of the social bond, a just society, feasible in terms of a paradox analogous to that of scientific activity? What would such a paradox be?”
p.xxv
Jean-Francois Lyotard on Knowledge
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“I define postmodern as incredulity toward metanarratives.”
p. xxiv -
“Knowledge is and will be produced in order to be sold.”
p.4 -
“The logic of maximum performance is no doubt inconsistent in many ways, particularly with respect to contradiction in the socio-economic field: it demands both less work (to lower production costs) and more (to lessen the social burden of the idle population). But our incredulity is now such that we no longer expect salvation to rise from these inconsistencies, as did Marx.”
p.xxiv -
“…Scientific knowledge does not represent the totality of knowledge; it has always existed in addition to, and in competition and conflict with, another kind of knowledge, which I will call narratives in the interest of simplicity.”
p.7 -
“The moment knowledge ceases to be an end in itself—its realization of The Idea or the emancipation of men—it’s transmission is no longer the exclusive responsibility of scholars and students.”
p.50 -
“True knowledge, in this perspective, is always indirect knowledge; it is composed of reported statements, that are incorporated into metanarratives of a subject that source their legitimacy.”
p.35 -
“Our working hypothesis is that the status of knowledge is altered as societies enter what is known as the postindustrial age and cultures enter the postmodern age.”
p.3 -
“The relationship of the suppliers and users of knowledge to the knowledge they supply and use is now tending, and will be increasingly tend to, to assume the form already taken by the relationship of commodity producers and consumers to the commodities they produce and consume--that is, the form of knowledge.”
p.5
Jean-Francois Lyotard on Life
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Attributed to Jean-Francois Lyotard:
“A self does not amount to much, but no self is an island.”
Jean-Francois Lyotard on Mind
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“The body might be considered the hardware of the complex technical device that is human thought.”
Thought Without a Body?(1994) | p. 291
Jean-Francois Lyotard on Nature
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“It is generally accepted that nature is an indifferent, not deceptive opponent, and it is upon this basis that the distinction is made between the natural and the human sciences.”
p.57
Jean-Francois Lyotard on Politics
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“Knowledge in the form of an informational commodity indispensable to productive power is already, and will continue to be, a major-perhaps the major- stake in the world wide. It is conceivable the nation state will one day fight for control of information, just as they battled over territory, and afterwards for control of access to and exploitation of raw materials and cheap labor. A new field opened for industrial and commercial strategies on the one hand, and political and military strategies.”
p. 5 -
“Legitimation is the process by which a legislator is authorized to promulgate such a law as a norm.”
The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge(1977) | p.8 -
“Matter asks no questions, expects no answers of us. It ignores us. It made us the way it makes all bodies—by chance and according to its laws.”
Thought Without a Body?(1994) | p. 289 -
“Already in the last few decades, economic powers have reached the point of imperiling the stability of the state through new forms of the circulation of capital that go by the generic name of multinational corporations .”
The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge(1977) | p. 5
Jean-Francois Lyotard on Time
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Attributed to Jean-Francois Lyotard:
“What does happen, when nothing happens to us?”
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“What is new in all this is that the old poles of attraction represented by nation-states, parties, professions, institutions, and historical traditions are losing their attraction. And it does not look as though they will be replaced, at least not on their former scale.”
The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge(1977) | p. 15
Jean-Francois Lyotard on Truth
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“Let us wage a war on totality; let us be witnesses to the unpresentable.”
p.82 -
Attributed to Jean-Francois Lyotard:
“There is no language in general.”
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“Science has always been in conflict with narratives. Judged by the yardstick of science, the majority of them prove to be fables. But to the extent that science does not restrict itself to stating useful regularities and seeks truth, it is obliged to legitimate the rules of its own game.”
xxii