Lyotard Quotes

Enjoy the best quotes on Lyotard , Explore, save & share top quotes on Lyotard .

By calling into question the very ideal of a universal, autonomous reason (which was, in the Enlightenment, the basis for rejecting religious thought) and further demonstrating that all knowledge is grounded in narrative or myth, Lyotard relativizes (secular) philosophy's claim to autonomy and so grants the legitimacy of a philosophy that grounds itself in Christian faith. Previously such a distinctly Christian philosophy would have been exiled from the 'pure' arena of philosophy because of its 'infection' with bias and prejudice. Lyotard's critique, however, demonstrates that no philosophy - indeed, no knowledge - is untainted by prejudice or faith commitments. In this way the playing field is leveled, and new opportunities to voice a Christian philosophy are created. Thus Lyotard's postmodern critique of metanarratives, rather than being a formidable foe of Christian faith and thought, can in fact be enlisted as an ally in the construction of a Christian philosophy.

James K.A. Smith
Save QuoteView Quote

[Concerning Lyotard's ideology:]... Theory ought to be recognized as part of the problem, not as a potential solution.

Bill Readings, Introducing Lyotard: Art and Politics
Save QuoteView Quote

Lyotard develops and extends Weber's argument regarding the disenchantment of art to suggest the Western culture increasingly obeys an instrumental logic of performance and control, one that imposes order on the free play of the imagination and subordinates creative thought to the demands of the capitalist market. And, for Lyotard, the effects of this process are consistent with those outlined in Weber's work, namely the progressive elimination of ritual or religious forms of art, the restriction of creative forms by an instrumental (capitalist) rationality, and with this the denigration of value-rational artistic practice.

Nicholas Gane, Max Weber and Postmodern Theory: Rationalization Versus Re-enchantment
Save QuoteView Quote

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
Save QuoteView Quote

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
Save QuoteView Quote

Scientific knowledge is a kind of discourse.

Jean-Francois Lyotard
Save QuoteView Quote

What is required of a working hypothesis is a fine capacity for discrimination.

Jean-Francois Lyotard
Save QuoteView Quote

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
Save QuoteView Quote

... Lyotard suggests that while discourse operates as a system of representation which defines meanings according to their relation to other concepts in that system, figure is the realm of the singular, of that which refuses to, or simply cannot, be captured and systematized by the concept.

Nicholas Gane, Max Weber and Postmodern Theory: Rationalization Versus Re-enchantment
Save QuoteView Quote

... Desire baffles knowledge and power.

Jean-François Lyotard, Driftworks
Save QuoteView Quote