Lyotard and the Sophistication of Ontology

Abstract

The previous chapter traced Lyotard’s attempt at a restoration of sophistry, or more particularly of a sophistical intelligence, in Just Gaming. I concluded by suggesting that Lyotard’s attempt to clarify what regulates that intelligence finds itself both deepened and radicalised in The Differend. The possibility of reading The Differend in such a way is suggested not only by the inclusion of a number of analyses of sophistical arguments in The Differend, but also by one of the prefatory remarks made by Lyotard in that text. Under the heading ‘Author’ Lyotard declares that ‘the present reflections’ were announced ‘in the Prière de désinsérer’ of Rudiments païens (1977) and in the Introduction to The Postmodern Condition (1979). Were he not afraid of being tedious, he would confess that he had begun this work right after the publication of Économie libidinale (1974).