Lyotard and Politics

Stuart Sim is retired Professor of Critical Theory at Northumbria University. He has published widely on critical theory, and is a Fellow of the English Association. Amongst his recent publications are The Lyotard Dictionary (2011), Addicted to Profit: Reclaiming Our Lives from the Free Market (2012), Fifty Key Postmodern Thinkers (2013), and, with Brett Wilson and Barbara Hawkins (eds) Art, Science & Cultural Understanding (2014).

• 1. Introduction: Thinking Politics with Lyotard Lyotard's StyleNotes2. 'Philosophical Politics' in the 21st CenturyPhilosophers and IntellectualsLyotard's PostmodernismPeregrinations: Thinking Politics FluidlyLeft PopulismPosthegemony and PopulismLittle Narratives and Liberal DemocracyPhilosophers Against the SystemNotes3. Relativism and the Problem of Value JudgementJust RelativisingJudging FascismJudging LyotardPragmatic RelativismConclusionNotes4. Lyotard and the Post-Marxist TurnThe Rise of Post-MarxismAlgeria: The Limits of Marxist ThoughtLibidinal Economy: Marx and DesireThe Answer to Grand Narrative: The Postmodern ConditionThe Viability of Post-MarxismConclusion Notes5. The Politics of the DifferendThe Archipelago and DifferendsGender and the DifferendThe Nation State and the DifferendInternal DifferendsConclusionNotes6. The Politics of HeideggerFarías on Heidegger Derrida on HeideggerLyotard and the Sin of ForgettingLyotard as Anti-PopulistScapegoating and 'the Jews'Heidegger Post-LyotardNotes7. Thinking the Politics of the FutureOf Cyborgs and Cybernetic Systems'Can Thought Go On Without a Body?'Corporate Power and Robot LabourThe End is NighNotes 8. Aesthetics and PoliticsDuchamp and Aesthetic IndeterminacyModernisms and PostmodernismsNewman: No AllusionsMonory: No StoryLyotard on LiteratureLyotard on FilmLyotard on TelevisionLyotard on MusicConclusionNotes9. Conclusion: Towards a Politics of the EventLiving with EventsSvelte PoliticsPagan PoliticsReassessing the EventLyotard as a Work of ArtDissension and Invention'How to Judge Jean-François Lyotard?'NotesBibliography, Index

It is genuinely intellectually refreshing and invigorating to see Lyotard treated with the urgent seriousness that Sim brings to his work. With an impressive grasp of the entirety of Lyotard’s philosophical politics, Sim gives us the opportunity, perhaps for the first time, to understand Lyotard’s continued pertinence for anyone who would be both critical and political.