Book completed
Mar. 13th, 2021 09:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eve_primeThe Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge, by Jean-François Lyotard. I'd read this a long time ago but made myself read the whole thing again; it's a lot of work, though short.
Although Lyotard introduces the term "meta-narrative" (and its synonym, "grand narrative") in this book, it's not what the book is about. Rather, the book is about how there's no longer any valid overarching justification behind the pursuit of knowledge, because both of the meta-narratives for doing so have been discredited. The first, a meta-narrative of "speculation," was based on Hegel's thought, legitimizing the pursuit of knowledge through ever increasing unification and rising toward an ultimate goal of Spirit. The second, more characteristic of France, legitimized the pursuit of knowledge with a meta-narrative of "emancipation," that is, improving people's lives and freedom. He thinks the postmodern approach to knowledge will focus on fractals, discontinuities, etc. Also there's an interesting essay at the end about postmodernism and art. He suggests that the Kantian sublime is important - that is, when there's something that overwhelms our capacity to grasp it, we can both take pleasure in how the imagination can somehow grasp it anyway, and pain that art can never fully convey it.
Although Lyotard introduces the term "meta-narrative" (and its synonym, "grand narrative") in this book, it's not what the book is about. Rather, the book is about how there's no longer any valid overarching justification behind the pursuit of knowledge, because both of the meta-narratives for doing so have been discredited. The first, a meta-narrative of "speculation," was based on Hegel's thought, legitimizing the pursuit of knowledge through ever increasing unification and rising toward an ultimate goal of Spirit. The second, more characteristic of France, legitimized the pursuit of knowledge with a meta-narrative of "emancipation," that is, improving people's lives and freedom. He thinks the postmodern approach to knowledge will focus on fractals, discontinuities, etc. Also there's an interesting essay at the end about postmodernism and art. He suggests that the Kantian sublime is important - that is, when there's something that overwhelms our capacity to grasp it, we can both take pleasure in how the imagination can somehow grasp it anyway, and pain that art can never fully convey it.