Lyotard, Jean-François, 1924-1998

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Jean-François Lyotard, (born August 10, 1924, Versailles, France—died April 21, 1998, Paris), French philosopher and leading figure in the intellectual movement known as postmodernism.

As a youth, Lyotard considered becoming a monk, a painter, and a historian. After studying at the Sorbonne, he completed an agrégation (teaching degree) in philosophy in 1950 and joined the faculty of a secondary school in Constantine, Algeria. In 1954 he became a member of Socialisme ou Barbarie (“Socialism or Barbarism”), an anti-Stalinist socialist group, contributing essays to its journal (also called Socialisme ou barbarie) that were vehemently critical of French colonial involvement in Algeria. In 1966 he began teaching philosophy at the University of Paris X (Nanterre); in 1970 he moved to the University of Paris VIII (Vincennes–Saint-Denis), where he was appointed professor emeritus in 1987. In the 1980s and ’90s he taught widely outside France. He was professor of French at the University of California, Irvine, from 1993 and professor of French and philosophy at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., from 1995.

In his first major philosophical work, Discourse/Figure (1971), Lyotard distinguished between the meaningfulness of linguistic signs and the meaningfulness of plastic arts such as painting and sculpture. He argued that, because rational thought or judgment is discursive and works of art are inherently symbolic, certain aspects of artistic meaning—such as the symbolic and pictorial richness of painting—will always be beyond reason’s grasp. In Libidinal Economy (1974), a work very much influenced by the Parisian student uprising of May 1968, Lyotard claimed that “desire” always escapes the generalizing and synthesizing activity inherent in rational thought; instead, reason and desire stand in a relationship of constant tension.

In his best-known and most influential work, The Postmodern Condition (1979), Lyotard characterized the postmodern era as one that has lost faith in all grand, totalizing “metanarratives”—the abstract ideas in terms of which thinkers since the time of the Enlightenment have attempted to construct comprehensive explanations of historical experience. Disillusioned with the grandiose claims of metanarratives such as “reason,” “truth,” and “progress,” the postmodern age has turned to smaller, narrower petits récits (“little narratives”), such as the history of everyday life and of marginalized groups. In his most important philosophical work, The Differend: Phrases in Dispute (1983), Lyotard compared discourses to “language games,” a notion developed in the later work of Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951); like language games, discourses are discrete systems of rule-governed activity involving language. Because there is no common set of assumptions in terms of which their conflicting claims or viewpoints can be adjudicated (there is no universal “reason” or “truth”), discourses are for the most part incommensurable. The basic imperative of postmodern politics, therefore, is to create communities in which the integrity of different language games is respected—communities based on heterogeneity, conflict, and “dissensus.”

Archival Resources
Role Title Holding Repository
referencedIn Sylvere Lotringer Papers and Semiotext(e) Archive, Bulk, 1973-2000, 1960-2000 Fales Library & Special Collections
referencedIn Wellek Library Lectures Bibliographic Database entry for Jean-François Lyotard University of California, Irvine. Library. Department of Special Collections
referencedIn Mark Poster papers, 1967-2009 University of California, Irvine. Library. Department of Special Collections
referencedIn Guide to the Critical Theory Institute Records, University of California, Irvine University of California, Irvine. Library. Department of Special Collections
referencedIn Stanford University Press archival book copies, 1900-2012 Cecil H. Green Library. Department of Special Collections and University Archives
creatorOf Guide to Jean-Fracois Lyotard papers Bibliotheque littéraire Jacques Doucet
Role Title Holding Repository
Relation Name
associatedWith Baudrillard, Jean, 1929-2007 person
associatedWith Derrida, Jacques, 1930-2004 person
associatedWith Emory university corporateBody
associatedWith Krauss, Rosalind E., 1940- person
associatedWith Lotringer, Sylvère person
associatedWith The European Graduate School corporateBody
associatedWith University of California, Irvine corporateBody
employeeOf University of California, Irvine. School of Humanities corporateBody
participantIn University of California, Irvine. Wellek Library lectures at the University of California, Irvine corporateBody
Place Name Admin Code Country
Paris A8 FR
Subject
Art, Modern
Critical theory
Postmodernism
Occupation
Philosophers
Sociologists
Theorists
Activity

Person

Birth 1924-08-10

Death 1998-04-21

French

French

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