Study in Lund: A Report on Knowledge. // Modernism and Postmodernism in the 20th Century- LUND UNIVERSITY Spring 2016

The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge

 

Jean-Francois Lyotard was a French literary theorist, philosopher and sociologist who was highly influential in the field of postmodern studies; his book The Postmodern Condition: A report on knowledge was first published in 1979 and portrays his views on contemporary, developed society, especially in relation to culture, communication, and knowledge (particularly science, language, and the advancement in technology after the Second World War).

In this book, Lyotard introduced the term “postmodernism”, which was not used yet by his study field. He defined postmodern as a new term to describe a new aesthetic transition from modernism; he states that it is not necessarily something that followed on after the “end” of modernism. He explains that it “is not modernism at its end but in the nascent state, and this state is constant” (François Lyotard, 1979: p. 79). He goes on to further explain this as presenting aspects that had previously been thought of as unpresentable: “The postmodern would be that which, in the modern, puts forward the unpresentable in presentation itself” (François Lyotard, 1979: p. 81). To analyze this more deeply, his theory of the postmodern condition refers to how modern society lost some faith in the concept of metanarratives or metadiscourses which can be seen in modernism. Instead, postmodern authors use language to show things from a different angle. The postmodern culture had risen at the end of the 1950s in the developed societies.

How do we define ‘knowledge’ in a postmodern society? Lyotard already refers the postmodern era as a computerized society. He questions the new condition of knowledge when we are surrounded so much by communication technologies which give them access to information intensively and the information from the mass media. The notion of knowledge has changed its value (François Lyotard, 1979: p. 5).  Lyotard states how technological transformation can be expected to have a considerable impact on knowledge (François Lyotard, 1979: p. 4). The main subject matter in Lyotard's texts is the status of science and technology, of technocracy and the control of knowledge and information today. 

The book is written in 1979, and yet I feel that it is highly relevant when compared to today’s world. Lyotard’s relative theory of the notion of knowledge in computer-society is seen happening in our today’s digitalized world. Everyday man depends on technology knowledge to get around in life. Today’s linguistics has been influenced by how it is transmitted through technology; language and communication has changed by use of symbols (for example, the smiley face was voted Oxford Dictionary’s 2015 word of the year) and the communication between people has changed in a way that many might feel is not so positive – today’s computer society may begin to feel alienated from authentic human contact. Lyotard suggests that, in early postmodernism, advances in the “computerization of society” (François Lyotard, 1979: p. 67) was seen as a positive change, a positive transformative progress, but he was also well aware of the possible threat it posed to society. It could become “the ‘dream’ instrument for controlling and regulating the market system, extended to include knowledge itself” (François Lyotard, 1979: p. 67).

Lyotard says that to understand the nature of knowledge in modern times, one must be able to understand how the society operates (François Lyotard, 1979: p12-13). He suggests that postmodern culture is divided in two. One part of society is optimistic about the principle behind the system, the other is “technocratic, even cynical, not to mention despairing” (François Lyotard, 1979: p11). If modernist values upheld order, reason, science and technology, then postmodernist thinkers hold a contrasting belief that is closer to chaos theory, feeling that order, reason and strict regulation of culture was a kind of regression, drawing mankind back to primitive civilization. What then is the true goal of the system? He finds the main problem of postmodernity is legitimation, which is how “the right to decide what is true is not independent of the right to decide what is just, even if the statements consigned to these two authorities differ in nature” (François Lyotard, 1979: p8). 

In conclusion, my personal analysis of The Postmodern Condition is that it is overly vague, unspecific and, though his tone is cynical, he fails to clearly express his meaning. In researching the topic, I learned that Lyotard later admitted he had a 'less than limited' knowledge of the science he discussed in The Postmodern, and to make up for his own lack of knowledge, he “made stories up.” This damages his credibility significantly. Furthermore, he claimed to have sourced information from a number of books that he hadn't actually read. In Perry Anderson’s 1998 book The Origins of Postmodernity, Lyotard is quoted describing The Postmodern Condition as a “parody” and “simply the worst of all my books.” However, I find Lyotard philosophy of how postmodernist society was being taken over by technology is very interesting when you see how his “made up stories” have become true in today’s culture.