translated by Georges Van Den AbbeeJe Phrases in Dispute Jean-Fran~ois Lyotard M.Uo "n. £ 9.95 "Jean-Fran,ois Lyolard is, with Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, and Gilles Oeleuze, one of the key figures in contemporary French philosophy. Like his immediate counterparts, he has been preoc- cupied with the present possibility of philosophical thought and its relation to the contemporary organization of knowledge. But, un- like them, he has been explicitly concerned with the ethical, social and political consequences of the options under investigation. In TIre Differelld, Lyolard subjects to scrutiny-from the particular per- spective of his notion of 'differend' (difference in the sense of dispute)-the turn of all Western philosophies toward language; the decline of metaphysics; the present intellectual retreat of Marxism; the hopes raised, and mostly dashed, by theory; and the growing political despair. Taking his point of departure in an analysis of what Auschwitz meant philosophically, Lyotard attempts to sketch out modes of thought for our present."-Wlad Godzich Manchester University Press ISBN 0 7190 19257 Jean-Fran~ois Lyotard is professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of Paris VIII and professor at the University of California, Irvine. His Postmodem COllditio" and JlIst Gamillg are both available in translation from Minnesota. Georges Van Den Abbeele is associate professor of French literature at Miami University, Ohio. With its revised view of Kant, and its development of the con- sequences for aesthetics, The Differtlld is, by his own assessment, Lyotard's most important book. Two of his earlier works, Tile Post- modem COllditiOIl and Just Gamillg (written with Jean-Loup Th~b ,ud), were about what a postmodern philosophy sJwuld do; The Diffen!lld is an attempt to do such philosophy. The book was published in 1984 in France and this is its translation into English. The Differenil THE UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK LIBRARY The Differend: Phrases in Dispute , . The Differend Phrases in Disp_ut_e _ Jean-Fran<;ois Lyotard Translation by Georges Van Den Abbeele ~ Manchester University Press The Unin'nil)" of Minn~ta gratefully ll(klH)l"lf'dges translation lIS- siShloce for this book by I1M:' .·~och Ministry of Culture and lilt Georges 1.1l~)' Charitable and Educillional Trust. Copyright © 1988 by lhe Unj~ersily of MinrocSOla Originally published as Lt Difflmul © 1983 by Les Editions de Minuil. All rights reserved. No pan of this publkalion may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or lransmined. in any form or by any mc:ans. elcctronic. mechanical. poolOoopying. nxon.ting. or OIhcT\\';sc. without lhe prior wrinen permission of the publisher. Published by the United Kingdol1l by Manchester University Press Oxford Rood. Mancllesler M 13 9PL British Library cataloguing in publication data applied for ISBN 0-7190 1924 9 hardback 01190 19257 p;!pcrback For funhcr information on publishing lIistory. see p. vi. , 8903503 aAMrna Sclec'led portl()llS of Chapter.; I and 2 ert' prevIOUsly pubho;hal under the: title ""The Dilferend. lhe: Rc!erenl. and lhe: Propc:r Name: in Oil/· eri/;f;s 14 (No.3, fall 1984), pp. 4-14. translaled by Grorga Van Den AbOC le. Pans of Chapler 3 appeared in a volume ediled by Alan Mon· lefiort'. PhUQsoph)';n FnlllC"t Toda)' (Cambridge Uni"ersity Prcs-\. 1983) under the: tille -Prcsenlalions w (pp. I 16-JS) and tran~laled by Kathleen Mcul.lghlin. An early '·er.;ion of portions of Chapter 4. tr<lJl'>' l<lled by Georges Van Den Abbcck, lOTi ~nd)' printed by lhe: Crnler for T"'Cnliclh Cmtury Studir$, Uni"cn;ity of Wisronsin·Mil l.ltee. in its series of ~Wort.ing P.dPCrs,~ as wDiscussions, or PtIraslng aftcr Ausch it:C (fall 1986. Worting Pllper No.2). The French vCl'$ion of lhis paper was originally delivered as a talk Wilh Ihe 1;lle "Discussions. au phraser 'Aprk Al.lschwil7,· w at the confert'nce "US fins de l'hornlll<.": • panir dl.ltravail de JIlCqUCS Dcrrit1.:l: he:ld al Cerisy in July of 1980. The paper "''as suMcqucntly published in the coofert'ncc procffdings: w FiM rk l'/oomJM: Q pan;, du ,ro'"(J;l tk Jocquu Dt'rriOO. cd. PtIilippc Lacouc·l.lobarthe and JClln·L.uc Nancy (PlIris: Galil«, 1981), pp. 283-315. Aillranslalions. including lOOse by Van O\'n Abbeclc. ha"c been modified for 711, 0;11""11//. , Contents Preface: Reading Dossier Title Objcci Thesis Queslion Problem Slakes Context Prelexi Mod' Genre Slyle Reader Author Address The Differend Nos. 1-8 Protagoras Notic~ 1 Pages ,i ,i 'i '" '" xii xii xiii xiii xiv xiv xiv xiv 'v 3 3-5 6 CONTENTS 0 ;x 6 3 94 7 4 96 7 No. 155. WO 97 8 No. 156. "Beautiful death" 99 8-14 No. 157. Exception 100 14 No. 158. Third party? 102 16-19 No. 159. Without a result 103 19 No. 160. Return 104 19 21 Obligation 107 22 24 Nos. 161-170 107-109 26 LeI';flllS No/ice 110 26-31 1 110 2 112 32 3 113 Nos. 171-177 115-117 32-34 Kam No/ice 2 118 35 I. The law is not deduced 118 38-56 2. I am able 10 120 3. The abyss 123 59 4. The type 123 5. Commutability 125 59-60 6. Ethical time 126 61 65-66 Genre. Norm 128 67 68-71· Nos. 178-181 128-129 72 Kam Notice 3 130 • 72 I. The archipelago 130 73 2. Passages 131 74 3. Arrangement 133 76-85 Nos. 182-209 135-144 Dec/aralioll of J 789 Notice 145 86 1 145 2 145 86 3 145 88 4 146 90 5 , 146 91 6 147 91 Nos. 210-217 147-150 93 "iii 0 CONTENTS No. 152. Model No. 153. Experience No. 154. Scepticism Hegel Notice 1 2 2 3 4 5 Nos. 94-98 Kant Notice I Nos. 99-104 Gertrude Stein Notice Nos. 105-119 Aristotle NOtice I. Before and after 2. Now 3. Some observations Nos. 120-151 Nos. 9-27 Gorgi(l.f Notice Nos. 28-34 Pima Notice I. Strong and weak 2. Impiety 3. Dialogue 4. Selection 5. Mctalcpsis Nos. 35-46 Nos. 47-54 Amisthenes Notice Nos. 55-93 The Rcfercni. The Name Presentation Result 0 CONTENTS Thc Sign of History Nos. 218-220 Cashiflahu(1 Notiu I 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Nos. 221-235 Kllnt NO/jet> 4 I. Historical inquiry 2. The guiding thread 3. The event 4. Enthusiasm 5. The indeterminate norm and the human community 6. Culture Nos. 236-264 Works Cited Glossary of French Terms Index of Names Index of Terms 151 151-152 152 152 153 153 153 154 154 154 155 155-160 161 161 163 164 165 167 169 171-181 185 193 199 205 I Preface: Reading Dossier I t ,.!-:' I As distinguished from a litigation. a differcnd (dijfiutld] would be a case of conflict. between (at least) two parties. that cannot be equitably resolved for lack of a rule of judgment applicable to both arguments. One sidc's legitimacy does not imply the other's lack of legitimacy. However. applying a single rule of judg- ment to both in order to seule their differend as though it were merely a litigation would wrong (at least) one of them (and both of them if neither side admits this rule). Damages result from an injury which is inflicted upon the rules of a genre of discourse but which is reparable according to those rules.~ wrong, results from the fact that the rules of the gcnre of discourse by which onc judges are oot those of the judged genre or genrcs of discourse. Theownership of a literary or artistic work can incur damages (as when the moral rights of the author are assailed): '~ but thc very principle that onc ought to treat a work as an objcct of owncrship may constitute a wrong (as when it is not recognized that the -author- is its hos- ~ tage). The title of this book suggests (through the gcneric value of the definitearti- cle) that a universal rulc of judgmcnt between hetcrogcneous genres is lacking in g:cncral. Object The only one that is indubitablc. lhc phrasc. becausc it is immediatcly presup- posed. (To doubt that onc phrdscs is still to phrase. onc's silencc makes a phrase). ~i; 0 PRI~FACE READING IX)SSlER Or better yet, phrases: because the singular calls forth the plural (as the plural docs the singular) and because the singular and the plural are together already the plural. Thesis A phrase. even Ihe most ordinary one. is constituted according to a set of rules (its regimen). There are a number of phrase regimens: reasoning. knowing. describing. recounting. questioning. showing. ordering. etc. Phrases from heter- ogeneous regimens cannot be translated from one into the other. They can be linked one onto the other in accordance with an end fixed by a genre'Ofdiscourse. For example. dialogue links an ostension (showing) or a definition (describing) onto a question; at stake in it is the two parties coming to an agreement about the sense of a referent. Genres of discourse supply rules for linking together heter· ogeneous phrases, rules that are proper for attaining certain goals: to know. to teach. to be just. to seduce. to justify, to evaluate. to rouse emotion. to over- see There is no ~Ianguage- in general. except as the object of an Idea. Question A phrase -happens.~ How can it be linked onto? By its rule. a genre of discourse supplies a set of possible phrases. each arising from some phrase regimen. An- other genre of discourse supplies another set of other possible phrases. There is a differend between these two sets (or between the genres that call them forth) because they are heterogeneous. And linkage must happen ~now~: another phrase cannot not happen. It's a necessity; time. that is. There is no non-phrase. Silence is a phrase. There is no last phrase. In the absence of a phra~ regimen or of a genre of discourse that enjoys a universal authority to decide. docs not the linkage (whichever one it is) necessarily wrong the regimens or genres whose possible phrases remain unactualized? Problem Given I) the impossibility of avoiding confticts (the impossibility ofinditrerence) and 2) the absence of a universal genre of discourse to regulate them (or. if you prefer. the inevitable partiality of the judge): to lind. if not whm can legitimate judgment (the ~good~ linkage). then at least how to save the honor of thinking. Stakes To convince the reader (including the first one. the A.) that thought. cognition. ethics. politics. history or being. depending on the case. arc in play when one PREFACE READING t>OSSIER 0 ~;ii phrase is linked onto another. To refute the prejudice anchored in the reader by centuries of humanism and of~human sciences~ that there is -man. ~ that there is ~Janguagc. - that the former makes usc of the latter for his own ends. and that if he docs not succeed in attaining these ends. it is for want of good cOnlrol over language ~by means~ of a ~belter~ language. To defend and illustrate philosophy in its ditrerend with its two adversaries: on its outside. the genre of economic dis· course (exchange. capital): on its inside. the genre of academic discourse (mas- tery). By showing that the linking of one phrase onto another is problematic and that this problem is the problem of politics. to set up a philosophical politics apart from the politics of ~intellectuals- and of politicians. To bear witness to the differend. Context The -linguistic lurn~ of Western philosophy (Heidegger's later works. the penetration of Anglo-American philosophies into European thought. the develop- ment of language technologies); and correlatively. the decline of universalist dis- courses (the metaphysical doctrines of modem times: narratives of progress. of socialism. of abundance. of knowledge). TIle weariness with regard to ""theory and the miserable slackening that goes along with it (new this. new that. post-this. post-that. etc.). The time has come to philosophize. Pretexi The two thoughts which beckon 10 the A.: the Kant of the third Cril;qu~ and the historical-political texts (the -fourth Critique~): the Wittgenstein of the Philo- soph;callm'~sl;gal;ons and the posthumous writings. In the context imagined by the A.• they are epilogues to modernity and prologues to an honorable postmoder- nity_ They draw up lhe aflidavit ascertaining the decline of universalist doctrines (Leibnizian or RusseIJian metaphysics). They question the terms in which these doctrines thought they could seule differends (reality. subject. community. final- ity). They question them more rigorously than docs Husserl's -rigorous science. ~ which proceeds by eidetic variation and transcendental evidencc. the ultimate ex- pedient of Cartesian modernity. At the opposite pole, Kant says that there is no such thing as intellectual intuition, and Wittgcnstein that the signification of a teml is its use. The free examination of phrases leads to the (critical) dissociation of their regimens (the separalion of the faculties and their conftict in Kant: the disentanglement of language games in Wittgenslein). They lay the ground for the thought of dispersion (diaspora. writes Kant) which. according to the A shapes our context. Their legacy ought to be relieved today of its cumbersome debt to anthropomorphism (the notion of~use" in both. an anthropomorphism that is tran- scendental in Kant. empirical in Wingenstcin). xiv 0 PREFACE READING DOSSIER Mode The book's mode is philosophic, reflective. The A.'s only rule here is to examine cases of differend and to find the rules for the heterogeneous genres of discourse that bring about these cases. Unlike a theoretician, he docs not presuppose the rules of his own discourse, but only that this discourse too must obey rules. The mode of the book is philosophical. and not theoretical (or anything else) to the extent that its stakes are in discovering its rules rather than in supposing their knowledge as a principle. In this very way, it denies itself the possibility of set- tling, on the basis of its own rules. the differends it examines (contrary to the speculative genre. for instance, or the analytic). The mode is that of a metalan- guage in the linguist's sense (phrases are its object) but not in the logician's sense (it docs not constitute the grammar of an object-language). Genre In the sense of poetics, the genre is that of Observations. Remarks, Thoughts. and Notes which are relative to an object: in other words. a discontinuous form of the Essay. A notebook of sketches? The reftections are arranged in a series of numbers and grouped into sections. The series is interrupted on occasion by No- tices. which are reading notes for philosophical texts. but the whole is to be read in sequence. St}"le The A.'s naive ideal is to attain a zero degree style and for the reader to have the thought in hand. as it were. There sometimes ensues a tone of wisdom, a senten- tious one. which should be disregarded. The book's tempo is not that of "our time." A little out of date? The A. explains himself at the end about the time of "our time." Reader A philosophical one. thaI is, anybody on the condition that he or she agrees not to be done with "language" and not to "gain time Nevertheless. the present read- ing dossier will allow the reader, if the fancy grabs him or her, 10 "talk about the book" without having read it. (For the NOIices. a lillIe more professional a reader.) Author Announced the prosent renections in thc -Pricre de dcsinscrer" of Rudiments parens (1977) IPagan Ru(/ill/emsl and in the Inlroduction to n,l' Po.wm(x/erll Con- PREFACE REAI)ING \X)SSIER 0 xv ditioll (1979). Wcre he not afraid ofbcing tedious, he would confess that he had begun this work right after the publication of Ecotlomie libidinale (1974). Or for thaI matter These reflections could not in the end haveseen the light of day without an agreement reached between the University of Paris VIII (Vincennes in Saint-Denis) and the C. N. R. S. , and without the obliging help of Maurice Caveing and Simone Debout-Oleszkiewicz. researchers at the C. N. R. S. The A if not the reader, thanks them for this. Address So. in the next century there will be no more books. It takes too long to read. when success comes from gaining time. What will be called a book will be a printed object whose "message" (its information content) and name and title will first have been broadcast by the media, a film, a newspaper interview, a television program. and a cassette recording. It will be an object from whose sales the pub- lisher (who will also have produced the film, the interview. the program. etc.) will obtain a cenain profit margin. because people will think that they must "have" it (and therefore buy it) so as not to be taken for idiots or to break (my goodness) the social bond! 11le book will be distributed at a premium, yielding a financial profit for the publisher and a symbolic one for the reader. This particular book. along with others. belongs to the last of last year's line lfin de siriel. Despite every effort to make his thought communicable, the A. knows that he has failed. that this is tOO voluminous, too long, and too difficult. 1lle promoters have hidden away. Or more exactly. his timidity kept him from "contacting" them. Contented enough that one publisher (condemned also by this very act) has agreed to publish this pile of phrases. Philosophers have never had instituted addressees, which is nothing new. The reflection's destination is also an object of reflection. The last of last year's line has been around a long time. So has solitude. Still there is something new: the relation 10 time (I am tempted to wrile the "use of time") thaI reigns today in the "public space. ~ Reflection is nOl thrust aside today because it is dangerous or up- setting. but simply because it is a waste of time. It is -good for nothing." it is not good for gaining time. For success is gaining time. A book, for example. is a suc- cess if its first printing is rapidly sold out. This finality is the finality of the eco- nomic genre. Philosophy has been able to publish its reflections under Ihe guise of many genres (artistic, political. theological. scientific, anthropological), at the price, of course, of misunderstandings and gr'~e wrongs. but still -whereas economic calculation seems fmal to it. e differen~ d~s not. bear upon the content of the reflection. 11 concerns (an tampers WIth) Its ultullate presuppositions. Reflection requires thaI you watch out for occurrences, thaI you don't already know what's happening. It leaves open the question: Is if Iwpp('"illg? IArril'e-f-il?11t tries to keep up with the now Imaimenir Ie mailltemmt] (to use ~vj 0 PREFACE READING DOSSIER a belabored word). In the economic genre, the rule is that what happens can hap- pen only if it has already been paid back. and therefore has already happened. Exchange presupposes that the cession is canceled in advance by a counter- cession, the circulation of the book being canceled by its sales. And the sooner this is done, the better the book is. In writing this book, the A. had the feeling that his sole addressee was the Is it happening? It is to it that the phrases which happen call forth. And, of course. he will never know whether or not the phrases happen to arrive at their destina~ tion, and by hYlX'thesis, he must not know it. He knows only that this ignorance is the ultimate resistance t at the event can 0plX'se 10 the accountable or countable lcomprable) use of time. The Differend: Phrases In Dispute [...]... crimc~ does not consist in killing the victim or the witnesses (that adds new erimes to the first one and aggravates the difficulty of effacing everything) but rather in 0btaining the silence of the witnesses the deafness of the judges and the inconsistency (insanity) of the testimony You neutralize the addressor the addressee and the sense of the testimony: then everything is as if there were 00 referent... telling you that you are fine Or even b) taking note of the final prosopopeia (where the dead heroes begin to speak) through his (the orator's) mediation we (the dead heroes) are telling us (the living citizens) that we (the living and the dead) are fine The addressee in the first uni\'erse also occupies the place of referent in the second The referent of the first universe also becomes the addressor in. .. inSl:lllCes: death in combat is a ~beautiful death~: a beautiful death implies a ~fine~ life; Athenian life is fine: the Athenian living Ihis life is fine: you are fine The situations of the names upon the instances in Ihe manifest universe presented by the epitaphios are: I the orator am tcJ1ing you (the Assembly) thatlhose dead in the field of honor are fine In the copresented (latent) universe the. .. phrases bear upon domains of reference they are the object of axiomatic studies With respect to their good forotation it is 001 pertinent whcther the phrases obeying these rules are meaningful or n01 in the sense of their meaning in ordinary language Transcribed into ordinary language they may appear absurd Conversely phrases from ordinary language may appear -meaningful in that language and be poorly formed... c-398 b) mainly attacks the procedure which consists in making the gods speak rather than anacking what they are made to say the le.ri.f rather than the logos The procedure is mimetic: by Situating the god in the addressor instance the addressor MproperlyM called who is in principle the narrator is occulted Theater is the pure case of mimetic iXlCtics: the author docs not appear on stage he remains hidden... regime!!s 10 a single finality: the queslion the example, the argument the narration, lhe exclamation are in forensic rhetoric the heterogeneous means of persuading It does not follow that differends between phrases should be eliminated Taking anyone of these phrases another genre of discourse can inscribe it into another finality Genres of discourse do nothing more than shift the differend from the level... 'hen q, on the one hand p and nor-p, and q and nor-q, on the other han~, -~re the limiting cases - indeed the disintegration (AufllJsUllg) - of the comblnallon of signs~ (TLP: 4 466) They are expressions devoid ofsense (sinn/os); they teach noIhing precisely because they are necessary The expression It rains or it doesn) rain makes nothing known about the weather we're having (TLP: 4 461) They 3rc propositions,... each other to the point of giving rise to differends then they must have certain properties in common and their ~en­ counter~ must take place within a single universe otherwise there would be no encounter at all! - The universe you are thinking of would be a universe prior to the phrases and where they would encounter each other; but it is your phrase that presents it It presents it as being there... another family of phrases; but in the case of work recourse is not made to another family of work recourse is still made to another family of phrases The same goes for every 24 It is possible then that the survivors do not speak even though they are not threatened in their ability to speak should they speak later The socio-linguist the psycho-linguist the bio-linguist seek the reasons the passions the. .. establishing them espcl'ially in the Topit's and the Sophislictll RefiullI;ons.) Whatever they may be and no mailer 160 THE DIFFEREND how hard it is to establish them however, these rules presuppose in themselves a kind of mewpriociple BarbarJ Cassin (who calls it arch- . rules are meaningful or n01. in the sense of their meaning in ordinary language. Transcribed into ordinary language. they may appear absurd. Conversely. phrases from ordinary language may appear -meaningful M in that. the following phrase. The series formed by the work!. in panklilar the world ofhllman history. is neither finite or infinite (we can argue cither one indifferently). but the synthesis of the series reasons. the passions. the interests. the context for these silences. Let us first seek their logic. We find that they are substi- tutes for phrases. They come in the place of phrases during a conversation.