8.04: The Postmodern Condition—Explained

Note: Hey listeners, sorry for the weirdness—I (Chris) accidentally published this pointing to the audio for last week’s episode. All fixed now!

Jean-François Lyotard on postmodernity, science, and kitschy art.

The Postmodern Condition, Jean–François Lyotard

We do our best to explain this dense piece of French aesthetic theory, its arguments with German idealist philosophers, and its very strong feelings about non-avant-garde art.

Chris, because he was slightly sick, forgot that although we were recording in February, the episode was coming out in March. This threw off everything we said about dates for the rest of the episode. Whoops!

(The book schedule is adjusted accordingly below.)

• German idealists
• Jürgen Habermas
• J. L. Austin and his work How to Do Things With Words
• John Searle
• Ludwig Wittgenstein
• Theodor Adorno and his work Aesthetic Theory
• Systems theory
• Kurt Gödel
• Positivism
• Karl Popper
• Friedrich Nietzche
• Artists Lyotard brings up in his strange appendix:
  • Marcel Duchamp
  • Marcel Proust
  • James Joyce
  • Gustave Flaubert
• Karl Barth and specifically his work Nein

• April: The Age of Spiritual Machines, Ray Kurzweil
• May: Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton (and the movie!)
• June: Dark Matters: On the Surveillance of Blackness, Simone Brown

• “Tony Sendo” by Bluestaeb & S. Fidelity Present Underground Canopy
• “Winning Slowly Theme” by Chris Krycho.

Many thanks to the people who help us make this show possible by their financial support! This month’s sponsors:

• Daniel Ellcey
• Douglas Campos
• Jake Grant
• Marnix Klooster
• Spencer Smith

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