What do you think?
Rate this book
Das Inhumane: Plaudereien über die Zeit
Lyotard fragt in diesem Buch, wie die Künste des Sehens, der Schrift und des Tones in der eigentümlichen Entwicklung, der die Menschen unterliegen, ihre paradoxale Wahrheit bewahren.
Die Menschen werden heute durch das "verwaltete Leben" (Adorno) in eine unmenschliche Entwicklung hineingerissen, die man längst nicht mehr Fortschritt nennen kann. Denn das "verwaltete Leben" vernichtet die entscheidenden menschlichen Fragen nach der Zeit, dem Gedächtnis und der Materie, indem es diese programmiert. Politische und philosophische Alternativen zu diesem Prozess sind heute verschwunden. Die einzige Möglichkeit sich dagegen zu wehren, scheint eine andere menschliche Haltung zu sein: die Selbst-Enteignung, die in jedem schlummert, die Rückkehr in seine unbezähmbare Kindheit. Diese Strategie, welche die Neo-Humanismen vermitteln, ist jedoch banal und führt nicht zu den entscheidenden Fragen zurück. Lyotard geht auf diese ein, indem er zeigt, wie die Künste des Sehens, der Schrift und des Tones ihre paradoxale Wahrheit bewahren.
Die Menschen werden heute durch das "verwaltete Leben" (Adorno) in eine unmenschliche Entwicklung hineingerissen, die man längst nicht mehr Fortschritt nennen kann. Denn das "verwaltete Leben" vernichtet die entscheidenden menschlichen Fragen nach der Zeit, dem Gedächtnis und der Materie, indem es diese programmiert. Politische und philosophische Alternativen zu diesem Prozess sind heute verschwunden. Die einzige Möglichkeit sich dagegen zu wehren, scheint eine andere menschliche Haltung zu sein: die Selbst-Enteignung, die in jedem schlummert, die Rückkehr in seine unbezähmbare Kindheit. Diese Strategie, welche die Neo-Humanismen vermitteln, ist jedoch banal und führt nicht zu den entscheidenden Fragen zurück. Lyotard geht auf diese ein, indem er zeigt, wie die Künste des Sehens, der Schrift und des Tones ihre paradoxale Wahrheit bewahren.
240 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1988
29 people are currently reading
1058 people want to read
About the author
Jean-François Lyotard
123 books342 followersJean-François Lyotard (DrE, Literature, University of Paris X, 1971) was a French philosopher and literary theorist. He is well-known for his articulation of postmodernism after the late 1970s and for his analysis of the impact of postmodernity on the human condition.
He went to primary school at the Paris Lycées Buffon and Louis-le-Grand and later began studying philosophy at the Sorbonne. After graduation, in 1950, he took a position teaching philosophy in Constantine in French East Algeria. He married twice: in 1948 to Andrée May, with whom he had two daughters, and for a second time in 1993 to the mother of his son, who was born in 1986.
He went to primary school at the Paris Lycées Buffon and Louis-le-Grand and later began studying philosophy at the Sorbonne. After graduation, in 1950, he took a position teaching philosophy in Constantine in French East Algeria. He married twice: in 1948 to Andrée May, with whom he had two daughters, and for a second time in 1993 to the mother of his son, who was born in 1986.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
July 13, 2008
Wonderful expositions from a philsoopher I often feel is rather neglected. Most essays in this colelction concern aesthetics and metaphysics as a study of human life and human interaction with the world.
Art and aesthetics is no longer a mere matter of "beauty", all art has become a question of "what it means to" (for Lyotard himself it is especially Barnett Newman who is important here); true art is philosophical/metaphysical and goes beyond the mere framing of reality; rather art must penetrate reality and show that which is prior to any framing; even though never explicitly mentioned by Lyotard, there is a definite impulse to be found here of Husserl and his notion of the living-world which is before any scientific postulation
Art and aesthetics is no longer a mere matter of "beauty", all art has become a question of "what it means to" (for Lyotard himself it is especially Barnett Newman who is important here); true art is philosophical/metaphysical and goes beyond the mere framing of reality; rather art must penetrate reality and show that which is prior to any framing; even though never explicitly mentioned by Lyotard, there is a definite impulse to be found here of Husserl and his notion of the living-world which is before any scientific postulation
September 1, 2025
یک قصر ارزش زیستن ندارد اگر همه اتاق های آن را بشناسید.
August 28, 2007
Slow, heady, cumbersome, and not entirely pleasant. I can't say this was my book-of-the-year choice and unless you are very seriously studying Lyotard's thought processes or influence and reflections on others, this might be one to skip. Sorry!
November 22, 2020
This is why rating books is kind of silly. There isn't a bad essay in the bunch, but ultimately I found myself looking ahead far too often to give this a five. Yet, the best essays in the collection are so transcendently fabulous that it feels totally wrong to not give the collection a five.
October 16, 2024
THE FRENCH “POSTMODERNIST” LOOKS AT A VARIETY OF TOPICS
Jean-François Lyotard (1924-1998) was a French philosopher, sociologist, and literary theorist, best known as a pioneer of Postmodernism. He was co-founder of the International College of Philosophy with Jacques Derrida, François Châtelet, and Gilles Deleuze.
He wrote in the Introduction to this 1988 book, “We should first remember that if the name of human can and must oscillate between native indetermination and instituted or self-instituting reason, it is the same for the name of inhuman… But the stress placed on the conflict of inhumanities is legitimated, nowadays more than previously, by the fact of a transformation of the nature of the system which I believe is a profound one. We have to try to understand this transformation, without pathos but also without negligence… The term ‘postmodern’ has been used, badly rather than well if I judge by the results, to designate something of this transformation. It will be seen in the pages that follow how one can try to describe it following the general, positivist hypothesis of a process of complexification, negative entropy or, put more simply, development.” (Pg. 4-5)
He says, “Human death is included in the life of human mind. Solar death implies an irreparably exclusive disjunction between death and thought: if there’s death, then there’s no thought. Negation without remainder. No self to make sense of it. Pure event. Disaster. All the events and disasters we’re familiar with and try to think of will end up as no more than pale simulacra.” (Pg. 11) He adds, “So the problem of the technological sciences can be stated as: how to provide this software with a hardware that is independent of the conditions of life on earth.” (Pg. 13)
He begins the second chapter, “The title ‘rewriting modernity’ was suggested to me… it seems far preferable to the usual headings, like ‘postmodernity,’ ‘postmodernism,’ ‘postmodern,’ under which this sort of reflection is usually placed… neither modernity nor so-called postmodernity can be identified as clearly circumscribed historical entities, of which the latter would always come ‘after’ the former. Rather we have to say that the postmodern is always implied in the modern temporality, comprises in itself an impulsion to exceed itself into a state other than itself… Modernity is constitutionally and ceaselessly pregnant with its postmodernity.” (Pg. 24-25)
He says in a chapter on American artist Barnett Newman, “A canvas by Newman draws a contrast between stories and its plastic nudity. Everything is there—dimensions, colours, lines---but there are no allusions. So much so that it is a problem for the commentator. What can one say that is not given?... SO many expressions of a feeling which does have a name in the modern aesthetic tradition…. the sublime. It is feeling of ‘there’… There is almost nothing to ‘consume,’ or if there is, I do not know what it is. One cannot consume an occurrence, but merely its meaning. The feeling of the instant is instantaneousness.” (Pg. 80)
He observes, “Photography brings to its end the programme of metapolitical ordering of the visual and the social. It finishes it in both senses of the word: it accomplishes it, and it puts an end to it. Know-how and knowledge as worked out, used and transmitted through studios and schools, are objectified in the camera. One click, and the most modest citizen, as amateur or tourist, produces his picture, organizes his space of identification, enriches his cultural memory, shares his prospectings.” (Pg. 120)
In the final chapter, he suggests, “Domestic language is rhythmic. There are stories: the generations, the locality, the seasons, wisdom and madness. The story makes beginning and end rhyme, scars over the interruptions. Everyone in the house finds their place and their name here, and the episodes annexed. Their births and deaths are also inscribed, will be inscribed in the circle of things and souls with them. You are dependent on God, on nature. All you do is serve the will, unknown and well known, of ‘physis,’ place yourself in the service of it urge, of the ‘phyhein’ which urges living matter to grow, decrease and grow again. This service is called labour.” (Pg. 192) Later, he adds, “Metaphysics is realized in the physics, broad sense, operating in the techno-science of today. It certainly requires of us another mourning than the kind required by the philosophy of disaster and redundancy. The line taken is not that of the untameable, but of its neglect.” (Pg. 199)
This book will be of particular value to those interested in Lyotard’s ideas about art, etc.
Jean-François Lyotard (1924-1998) was a French philosopher, sociologist, and literary theorist, best known as a pioneer of Postmodernism. He was co-founder of the International College of Philosophy with Jacques Derrida, François Châtelet, and Gilles Deleuze.
He wrote in the Introduction to this 1988 book, “We should first remember that if the name of human can and must oscillate between native indetermination and instituted or self-instituting reason, it is the same for the name of inhuman… But the stress placed on the conflict of inhumanities is legitimated, nowadays more than previously, by the fact of a transformation of the nature of the system which I believe is a profound one. We have to try to understand this transformation, without pathos but also without negligence… The term ‘postmodern’ has been used, badly rather than well if I judge by the results, to designate something of this transformation. It will be seen in the pages that follow how one can try to describe it following the general, positivist hypothesis of a process of complexification, negative entropy or, put more simply, development.” (Pg. 4-5)
He says, “Human death is included in the life of human mind. Solar death implies an irreparably exclusive disjunction between death and thought: if there’s death, then there’s no thought. Negation without remainder. No self to make sense of it. Pure event. Disaster. All the events and disasters we’re familiar with and try to think of will end up as no more than pale simulacra.” (Pg. 11) He adds, “So the problem of the technological sciences can be stated as: how to provide this software with a hardware that is independent of the conditions of life on earth.” (Pg. 13)
He begins the second chapter, “The title ‘rewriting modernity’ was suggested to me… it seems far preferable to the usual headings, like ‘postmodernity,’ ‘postmodernism,’ ‘postmodern,’ under which this sort of reflection is usually placed… neither modernity nor so-called postmodernity can be identified as clearly circumscribed historical entities, of which the latter would always come ‘after’ the former. Rather we have to say that the postmodern is always implied in the modern temporality, comprises in itself an impulsion to exceed itself into a state other than itself… Modernity is constitutionally and ceaselessly pregnant with its postmodernity.” (Pg. 24-25)
He says in a chapter on American artist Barnett Newman, “A canvas by Newman draws a contrast between stories and its plastic nudity. Everything is there—dimensions, colours, lines---but there are no allusions. So much so that it is a problem for the commentator. What can one say that is not given?... SO many expressions of a feeling which does have a name in the modern aesthetic tradition…. the sublime. It is feeling of ‘there’… There is almost nothing to ‘consume,’ or if there is, I do not know what it is. One cannot consume an occurrence, but merely its meaning. The feeling of the instant is instantaneousness.” (Pg. 80)
He observes, “Photography brings to its end the programme of metapolitical ordering of the visual and the social. It finishes it in both senses of the word: it accomplishes it, and it puts an end to it. Know-how and knowledge as worked out, used and transmitted through studios and schools, are objectified in the camera. One click, and the most modest citizen, as amateur or tourist, produces his picture, organizes his space of identification, enriches his cultural memory, shares his prospectings.” (Pg. 120)
In the final chapter, he suggests, “Domestic language is rhythmic. There are stories: the generations, the locality, the seasons, wisdom and madness. The story makes beginning and end rhyme, scars over the interruptions. Everyone in the house finds their place and their name here, and the episodes annexed. Their births and deaths are also inscribed, will be inscribed in the circle of things and souls with them. You are dependent on God, on nature. All you do is serve the will, unknown and well known, of ‘physis,’ place yourself in the service of it urge, of the ‘phyhein’ which urges living matter to grow, decrease and grow again. This service is called labour.” (Pg. 192) Later, he adds, “Metaphysics is realized in the physics, broad sense, operating in the techno-science of today. It certainly requires of us another mourning than the kind required by the philosophy of disaster and redundancy. The line taken is not that of the untameable, but of its neglect.” (Pg. 199)
This book will be of particular value to those interested in Lyotard’s ideas about art, etc.
Want to read
March 15, 2024ملاحظة لي: لم اقرا الكتاب بعد -
يعدّ ليوتار الاب الروحي للتحول الما بعد حداثي - في هذا الكتاب هو يجمع ويعيد صياغة الكثير من افكار من سبقوه ، وخصوصا فيما يتعلق بتقاطعات عوالم الاطفال مع عوالم البالغين
يعدّ ليوتار الاب الروحي للتحول الما بعد حداثي - في هذا الكتاب هو يجمع ويعيد صياغة الكثير من افكار من سبقوه ، وخصوصا فيما يتعلق بتقاطعات عوالم الاطفال مع عوالم البالغين
December 7, 2017
I remember thinking it kind of comical how much emphasis Lyotard put on our responsibility to deal with the death of the sun, when there are so many things that could do our species in much sooner.
November 10, 2021
Unless you are philosopher, this text is too advance for lay-person like me to comprehend its references, analogies, ..., etc.
November 13, 2021
The intro and first chapter are worth the price of the whole book. Essential reading for anything thinking about AI or art or humanism
March 1, 2010
kumpulan esai ini aku beli bekas dari alibris.com [sekitar $12-an:]
menarik karena memuat beberapa tulisan dia yang cukup terkenal macem 'rewriting modernity', 'logos and techne, or telegraphy' dan terakhir 'domus and the megalopolis'.
itu baru yang aku kenal, ada 13 lagi sisanya.
LYOTARD menyebut dirinya sendiri sebagai symptomatologist, orang yang memberi reaksi filosofis atas fenomena kontemporer dengan cara yang agak bebas. sebutan ini berbeda dari gambaran umum yang selama ini dikenakan padanya: filosof yang serius mengajukan tesis-tesis dalam bukunya yang berat [macam the post-modern condition itulah:].
kumpulan esai ini bervariasi temanya, dan yang tersambar langsung di mata saya adalah katakunci-katakunci: logos, techne, modernity, representation, rewriting, body...
belum selesai kubaca buku itu.
pembukaan 'domus and the megalopolis' itu mengingatkan kita pada 'dwelling' heideggerian dan moda ekstensi manusia ala human condition hannah arendt: ketertambatan pada lokasi, labour, work...
nanti tak terusin lagi...
he..he.. janji meluluu...
menarik karena memuat beberapa tulisan dia yang cukup terkenal macem 'rewriting modernity', 'logos and techne, or telegraphy' dan terakhir 'domus and the megalopolis'.
itu baru yang aku kenal, ada 13 lagi sisanya.
LYOTARD menyebut dirinya sendiri sebagai symptomatologist, orang yang memberi reaksi filosofis atas fenomena kontemporer dengan cara yang agak bebas. sebutan ini berbeda dari gambaran umum yang selama ini dikenakan padanya: filosof yang serius mengajukan tesis-tesis dalam bukunya yang berat [macam the post-modern condition itulah:].
kumpulan esai ini bervariasi temanya, dan yang tersambar langsung di mata saya adalah katakunci-katakunci: logos, techne, modernity, representation, rewriting, body...
belum selesai kubaca buku itu.
pembukaan 'domus and the megalopolis' itu mengingatkan kita pada 'dwelling' heideggerian dan moda ekstensi manusia ala human condition hannah arendt: ketertambatan pada lokasi, labour, work...
nanti tak terusin lagi...
he..he.. janji meluluu...
May 26, 2012
Perhaps Lyotard is a little bit obtuse.
He compares seeming contradictions between Kant and Adorno. He talks about market economics.
At times he is profound. I am sure I will be able to quote him in my thesis.
Lyotard mentions Maurice Blanchot's L'entrerien infini. I have a feeling Blanchot would make a better read. I hope I am right.
I know I probably would not have finished this book had it not been required for school. It took twice as long to read, because it was so dense that I had to read it slowly, re-read some lines, and take some time to comprehend what I had just read. I am usually a speed-reader, so this was beyond annoying to me.
He compares seeming contradictions between Kant and Adorno. He talks about market economics.
At times he is profound. I am sure I will be able to quote him in my thesis.
Lyotard mentions Maurice Blanchot's L'entrerien infini. I have a feeling Blanchot would make a better read. I hope I am right.
I know I probably would not have finished this book had it not been required for school. It took twice as long to read, because it was so dense that I had to read it slowly, re-read some lines, and take some time to comprehend what I had just read. I am usually a speed-reader, so this was beyond annoying to me.
March 27, 2014
Well this took a long time , there are a few I think are worth revisiting which gets the 3 stars. I probably should look over a companion piece. I've become somewhat immune to his verbose style of writing but still stop writing like that please lyotard please.
Read
July 27, 2007taking the emphasis off post- and placing it squarely on modern. still working through the trauma of duchamp.
December 12, 2012
Lyotard is a riveting author , deconstructs postmodernism as a meme and describes the posthuman in this accessible collection of essays. Excellent introduction to this important thinker.
July 30, 2015
rating is overrated — you enter a book as you enter a river, swim across the current or sink — so is "The Inhuman"
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews