ABSTRACT
Philosophy, particularly the recent French philosophical tradition, has been both a prime site for debate about postmodernism and a source of many of the theories of what constitutes postmodernism. Probably the leading figure to be cited is Jean-François Lyotard, whose book The Postmodern Condition is widely considered to be the most powerful theoretical expression of postmodernism.1 Lyotard's plea that we should reject the ‘grand narratives’ (that is, universal theories) of Western culture because they have now lost all their credibility, sums up the ethos of postmodernism, with its disdain for authority in all its many guises. There is no longer any point in engaging with, for example, Marxism, the argument goes; rather, we should ignore it as an irrelevance to our lives. Postmodern philosophy provides us with the arguments and techniques to make that gesture of dissent, as well as the means to make value judgements in the absence of such overall authorities.
