Knowledge is and will be produced in order to be sold, it is and will be consumed in order to be valorised in a new production: in both cases, the goal is exchange
Jean-Francois LyotardRead
One can decide that the principal role of knowledge is as an indispensable element in the functioning of society, and act in accordance with that decision, only if one has already decided that society is a giant machine
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the role of knowledge as essential to the functioning of society, likening society to a complex machine.
Jean-Francois Lyotard suggests that for one to regard knowledge as crucial for societal functioning, they must first adopt the perspective of viewing society itself as a vast and intricate machine. This metaphor implies that knowledge is a fundamental cog in this societal machine, necessary for its operations and progress. By recognizing this relationship, individuals can better understand the importance of knowledge in contributing to social cohesion and functionality.
Themes
KnowledgeSocietyFunctioningMachinePhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of education, one might use this quote to highlight the value of knowledge in maintaining societal order.
More from Jean-Francois Lyotard
All quotes →If we wish to discuss knowledge in the most highly developed contemporary society, we must answer the preliminary question of what methodological representation to apply to that society
Jean-Francois LyotardRead
Similar quotes
God has not bowed to our nervous haste nor embraced the methods of our machine age. The man who would know God must give time to Him.
Aiden Wilson TozerRead
Build your opponent a golden bridge to retreat across.
Sun TzuRead
Our life is a book that writes itself and whose principal themes sometimes escape us. We are like characters in a novel who do not always understand what the author wants of them.
Julien GreenRead
He spent a lot of time flying. He learnt to communicate with birds and discovered that their conversation was fantastically boring. It was all to do with wind speed, wing spans, power-to-weight ratios and a fair bit about berries. Unfortunately, he discovered, once you have learnt birdspeak you quickly come to realize that the air is full of it the whole time, just inane bird chatter. There is no getting away from it.
Douglas AdamsRead
If truth is the main casualty in war, ambiguity is another.
Paul FussellRead
With the aurora borealis flaming coldly overhead, or the stars leaping in the frost dance, and the land numb and frozen under its pall of snow, this song of the huskies might have been the defiance of life, only it was pitched in minor key, with long-drawn wailings and half-sobs, and was more the pleading of life, the articulate travail of existence. It was an old song, old as the breed itself--one of the first songs of the younger world in a day when songs were sad.
Jack LondonRead