Simplifying to the extreme, I define postmodern as incredulity toward metanarratives. Jean-Francois Lyotard More Quotes by Jean-Francois Lyotard More Quotes From Jean-Francois Lyotard It is our business not to supply reality but to invent allusions to the conceivable which cannot be presented. Jean-Francois Lyotard allusionreality A self does not amount to much, but no self is an island; each exists in a fabric of relations that is now more complex and mobile than ever before. Jean-Francois Lyotard selfdoeislands The nineteenth and twentieth centuries have given us as much terror as we can take. We have paid a high enough price for the nostalgia of the whole and the one, for the reconciliation of the concept and the sensible, of the transparent and the communicable experience. Under the general demand for slackening and for appeasement, we can hear the mutterings of the desire for a return of terror, for the realization of the fantasy to seize reality. The answer is: Let us wage a war on totality; let us be witnesses to the unpresentable; let us activate the differences. Jean-Francois Lyotard differenceswarreality The ruling class is and will continue to be the class of decision makers Jean-Francois Lyotard makersdecisionclass Eclecticism is the degree zero of contemporary general culture: one listens to reggae, watches a western, eats McDonald's food for lunch and local cuisine for dinner, wears Paris perfume in Tokyo and 'retro' clothing in Hong Kong; knowledge is a matter of TV games. It is easy to find a public for eclectic works. Jean-Francois Lyotard clothesmcdonaldszero What is required of a working hypothesis is a fine capacity for discrimination Jean-Francois Lyotard hypothesisdiscriminationcapacity One knows that frontal and/or profile photography is torn to pieces... Inversely, what remains of the photograph must be seen as a fragment coming to fill a gap in the drawing. Jean-Francois Lyotard drawingpiecesphotography What guides Marxism, then, is a different model of society, and a different conception of the function of the knowledge that can be produced by society and acquired from it Jean-Francois Lyotard functionguidesdifferent On the other hand, in a society whose communication component is becoming more prominent day by day, both as a reality and as an issue, it is clear that language assumes a new importance. Jean-Francois Lyotard issuescommunicationreality Scientific knowledge is a kind of discourse. Jean-Francois Lyotard scientific-knowledgediscoursekind Knowledge is and will be produced in order to be sold, it is and will be consumed in order to be valorised in a new production: in both cases, the goal is exchange Jean-Francois Lyotard casesgoalorder He was too tough to experience disappointments and resentments - negative affections. In this nihilist fin de siècle, he was affirmation. Right through to illness and death. Why did I speak of him in the past? He laughed, he is laughing, he is here. It's your sadness, idiot, he'd say. Jean-Francois Lyotard sadnessdisappointmentpast One can decide that the principal role of knowledge is as an indispensable element in the functioning of society, and act in accordance with that decision, only if one has already decided that society is a giant machine Jean-Francois Lyotard giantsrolesdecision If we wish to discuss knowledge in the most highly developed contemporary society, we must answer the preliminary question of what methodological representation to apply to that society Jean-Francois Lyotard contemporary-societyanswerswish Liberalism does not preclude an organisation of the flow of money in which some channels are used in decision making while others are only good for the payment of debts Jean-Francois Lyotard debtdecisiondoe Our working hypothesis is that the status of knowledge is altered as societies enter what is known as the postindustrial age and cultures enter what is known as the postmodern age. Jean-Francois Lyotard statusworkingageknowledge A work can become modern only if it is first postmodern. Postmodernism thus understood is not modernism at its end but in the nascent state, and this state is constant. Jean-Francois Lyotard endbecomeonlywork And today more than ever, knowing about that society involves first of all choosing what approach the inquiry will take, and that necessarily means choosing how society can answer. Jean-Francois Lyotard answerwillsocietytoday Increasingly, the central question is becoming who will have access to the information these machines must have in storage to guarantee that the right decisions are made. Jean-Francois Lyotard questiondecisionswillinformation Even now it is no longer composed of the traditional political class, but of a composite layer of corporate leaders, high-level administrators, and the heads of the major professional, labor, political, and religious organisations. Jean-Francois Lyotard professionalpoliticallaborclass
