ABSTRACT
Throughout a number of essays, Jean-François Lyotard tracked the meaning of modernity in order to discern the marks of its end. 1 These works insist that modernity, the idea of a single historical process moving toward the goal of a “we,” i.e., a liberated, universal humanity, has been shattered by specific historical events. They tell us that no longer is it possible to situate ourselves within the promise of this We. My question, “Whither the We?” interrogates Lyotard’s accounts of this shattering. It asks whether Lyotard has properly understood the whence of the We and whether, if this understanding is flawed, he can direct us to its whither.
