François Lyotard and Postmodernism

hey everybody one of the most difficult things about postmodern theory is that it's notoriously difficult to define almost every postmodern thinker has their own opinion on what post-modernism it is and many of them differ quite wildly the easiest way to define post-modernism is to take the word apart post after modernism however some critics say post-modernism to mean that it is a rejection of modernism and others say it's a more extreme version of modernism still others say it's actually both at the same time even though they seem kind of contradictory in order to realistically limit the scope of our discussions for this course we're going to focus on the three thinkers and your Butler mentions in his article post modernism and science fiction Francois Lyotard fredric jameson and jean baudrillard there are many other important thinkers in post modernism Jacques Derrida Michel Foucault Brian McHale but the three thinkers that Butler mentions do a very good job of encapsulating a lot of what concerns postmodern literary theories today we'll start with Francois leotard you know Todd was a French critic and philosopher he began to explore most of the ideas we'll discuss in his 1979 book Lacombe de shambles mother reports through the sebuah the postmodern condition a report on knowledge as Andrew Butler argues the Attar's contention was that the modern in post-modernism doesn't so much refer to the artistic movement but the modern condition a condition brought about by the cultural and philosophical movement now referred to as the Enlightenment as you might deduce from the name the general philosophy of the Enlightenment held that true knowledge could be attained through pure reason and logic Enlightenment thinkers emphasised the power and capability of the individual mind embraced science as a way of knowing and advocated overthrowing totalitarian monarchic regimes in favor of States governed by social contracts enlightenment philosophy is generally considered the first modern philosophy and continues to exert its influence over history politics sociology you name it if you've heard of Rene Descartes Hulme John Locke Isaac Newton Thomas Hobbes or Immanuel Kant you've met the Enlightenment now the attorney felt that the Enlightenment ultimately failed in its attempts to create a more perfect world through reason as Butler argues and I quote the Attard felt the rational state had in fact led to two Tollett Arianism in various forms and knowledge in the form of information had become a commodity in short the Atari took this is a sign that the meta-narrative of the Enlightenment had failed the meta what the meta-narrative a meta-narrative is a narrative or story which according to the oxford english dictionary quote provides a schematic worldview upon which an individual's experiences and perceptions may be ordered meta-narrative is closely connected to the philosophical term TV ology the study of ends or final causes especially as related to the evidences of design or purpose in nature in other words a TV illogical philosophy like a meta-narrative understands the present and past in terms of the ultimate end goal of the future enlightenment philosophy was profoundly teleological and it has founded on beliefs about how the world works and what humanity is capable of it posited a meta-narrative which claimed that humanity could reach its full potential through pure science and reason what became increasingly clear to the Itard was that this simply was not true science and reason had that the great discoveries but they had also been the explanation for totalitarian governments genocide racism sexism even within scientific fields pure rational thinking had proven inadequate to explain things like quantum physics or chaos theory however rather than replacing one meta-narrative with another the Itard argues that post-modernism espouses an incredulity towards all meta-narratives now the Enlightenment is only one example of a meta-narrative and many others exist it's one of the more pervasive ones but any story that explains the way the world was and is and might be according to some sort of transcendent or universal truth is a meta-narrative most religious understandings of the world are based in a meta-narrative a story the understands the past present and future in terms of an ultimate purpose or design meta-narratives aren't inherently bad and they can inspire people to do great things however they also lead to some people believing the ends justify the means for example colonialism was able to overlook many of its horrors the subjugation and slavery of people the erasure of cultures and languages because it was founded on a meta-narrative part of the Enlightenment meta-narrative in fact that claim that Western society as it was was the height of civilization and human achievement and in order for the continued evolution of the human race it was the job of the West to civilize primitive people for an example of how pervasive these meta narratives are in our everyday lives take the following statements technology separates us from our humanity and makes us less human once we were whole and communal and in touch with the world around us as we become more industrialized we lose touch with our true human nature the history of mankind is about progress once we were primitive and uncultured but slowly and surely we are reaching our potential Pure Reason will help us understand everything in the universe rational scientific thought will lead to ethical and social progress human beings are inherently cruel sadistic and selfish the only thing that allows us to overcome this nature is insert your moral religious governmental or social concept there the u.s. is a Democratic Society and this represents the height of freedom liberty and the will of its people that democracy has been spreading around the world since our inception as a nation and will continue to spread because democracy is the best form of government those claims are all based on many narratives now the Itard says that post-modernism is skeptical towards meta-narratives that doesn't necessarily mean we always reject them it's just important that we question their claims to truth the Itard suggests that in space of meta-narratives we begin to understand the world through petty high seas or small localized narratives that take events in their context and emphasize and accentuate the diversity of human experience instead of the singularity of it this results in a plurality of meanings and truths all as valid as the other the turn argues that this is not some fall from a once unified world to a fragmented one in fact the notion that there was once a whole and now we're fragmented is constructed from meta-narratives the world has likely always been far more complex than we tend to believe Butler rightly argues that leotard would not have embraced science fiction wholeheartedly however he does do a good job reflecting the Itard Ian themes in science fiction I encourage you to take a look at those examples again on page 139 and 140 of his article next time we'll talk more about Fredric Jameson

Channel: Andréa Gilroy's Class Lectures

Views: 41,119

Keywords: science fiction, francois lyotard, colt 360, postmodernism, Jean-François Lyotard (Author)

Id: 0ZpF-IF9NzE

Length: 7min 20sec (440 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 17 2015