Description
Book Synopsis* Jean-Francois Lyotard is one of the most influential philosophers of the last fifty years and his book, The Postmodern Condition, was an international bestseller. * This short and very accessible book consists of a series of introductory lectures on philosophy that Lyotard gave to new students.
Trade Review"Lyotard suffered the fate of having his name attached to a once fashionable idea that is now decisively démodé: postmodernism. That Lyotard was a major voice in philosophy that we should read and reread is evidenced by this genuinely delightful, surprising and accessible series of introductory lectures."
Simon Critchley, New School for Social Research "Desire has a reality. Its hold is inescapable. It is bound up with a move across a divide. Desire brings a sense of unity into play. That sense is positioned in a relation to the constituting and ineliminable sense of division and separation that continues to structure thought. Philosophy is not just held in place by this tension: it is constituted by it. Lyotard’s four lectures introduce philosophy as that which is at work within the interplay of desire and separation. Philosophy's point is there in its inseparability from the reality of life."
Andrew Benjamin, Monash UniversityTable of ContentsAcknowledgements vi
Editorial note vii
Introduction 1
1 Why desire? 17
2 Philosophy and origin 44
3 On philosophical speech 70
4 On philosophy and action 100
