From: Aqiimuk <Aqiimuk-AT-aol.com>
Date: Tue, 12 May 1998 12:02:49 EDT
Subject: language game theory


Giovanna Costa,

Here's a paper I located by searching the web

~patricia aqiimuk paul~
Seattle University School of Law


<A HREF="http://www.clinch.edu/philos/phil346/Wolfe346e.htm">Wolfe on Lyotard
</A> 


Postmodernism


The essay " The Postmodern Condition" written by Jean-Francois Lyotard 
has some interesting ideals about society and the way things have 
changed in the last couple of centuries. Lyotard uses the word 
postmodern to define "the condition of knowledge in the most highly 
developed societies". Postmodernism has changed the rules of the game in 
almost every thing.


The most important thing that Lyotard talks about is the "narratives". 
He believes that this is what has changed. The narrative is the most 
important thing in language. When he speaks of language he refers mainly 
to the language games that people partake in. People have been involved 
in these games since the beginning of time. These games have been around 
for ever. The thing that have changed according to Lyotard are the rules 
of the games. The rules of the language games have changed along with 
the narratives of language.


Lyotard believes that the narratives used to be the most important 
aspects of language and of these games. He also believes that knowledge 
is mainly narrative. The ideal that he is trying to get across to the 
reader is that the word postmodern is used to tell us that the times 
have changed. The time when the rules were the same has changed. Almost 
all aspects of language, language games, and science have changed.


The language games that Lyotard has been talking about are games which 
people play in. Most people would not think of them as being games 
between one another. Lyotard believes that they are games. One of the 
things that people do in these games is try to out maneuver the other in 
the game within the rules. The second thing that people do is to 
actually press and call into question some of the rules. He also 
believes that these two things should be done at the same time. There 
can be any number of different games which can come from different 
people or relationships. People may be friends, family, or even a boss 
or co-worker. Each person may take a different attitude towards the 
game. He says that there can be different types of utterances used in 
the games to try to out maneuver the other person. These things are all 
used in the games. These games have some rules which are defined as the 
game progresses. This is what is so good about this sort of game. In 
other types of games such as sports, the rules have already been set. 
The language game rules have not been set. Lyotard also says that there 
is a difference between a conversation and an institution in that it has 
rules in which certain words, phrases, or utterances are not allowed. 
Some of these institutions are churches, businesses, the home place. All 
of these places have rules and boundaries that should not be crossed. 
For instance, the players of the games should not be allowed to use bad 
language at the house or at the church. A lot of the time these 
boundaries are crossed. It is wrong to cross them but sometimes it 
happens. He refers to the different types of phrases and words in 
language games to language "moves". Lyotard believes that the boundaries 
for these "moves" are never set for certain and are usually crossed. 
Some people may cross them intentionally and some may not.


The language games are important in today's and yesterday's societies. 
One example of the importance of these games is in the court room. The 
two lawyers and the people on trial would like to have a judge who puts 
up with certain types of language games. It would be better off for the 
lawyers to be able to identify with the judge about certain types of 
talk or language. It is all about political correctness. Some places 
prefer political correctness and some do not. In modern times there was 
no such thing as political correctness. In today's society it is a must. 
An example of this would be a group of older men talking in a restaurant 
early in the morning. They are sitting around drinking coffee and just 
talking about old times and the new. They speak of the changing times 
and how they have become worse or better than they were. These men do 
not worry about political correctness. If you asked them what it meant 
they would probably not know or even care. This an example of how things 
have changed and how we are not living in "modern" times but in 
"postmodern" times. There are also some different types of conversations 
in language games. A good example of this is a racial conversation. One 
conversation could between two friends who are of different colors who 
are calling each other racial expressions. It is not a harmful 
conversation because they are just friends. The other type is when the 
two are not friends. This could end up in hatred or a fight. This is the 
difference in the language games. This is also why there should be rules 
in the games even though the rules are bound to be broken at some point 
or another.


Another big thing that Lyotard talks about in his essay is the narrative 
"the". He believes that this narrative can not be used anymore in a 
singular sense. He believes that it should be used in a plural sense. He 
says that this narrative has more than one tense to it. People use to 
refer to religion, history, philosophy, as the only one. The true 
religion, the only history and philosophy. Lyotard believes that it is 
not that way anymore. He says that there are more than one of these 
things in postmodern time. The modern times were then and the postmodern 
times are now. The modern time is the previous era. The word modern is 
defined by the word singular and the word post modern is defined by the 
word plural.


This essay is an interesting one. Lyotard is right about these things. 
There are probably a lot of people out there who agree with him about 
this condition. The modern time is gone in a sense and the postmodern 
times are here. The word plurality is going to be a popular word in 
today's society because there are so many different types of everything. 
The narratives have lost some of their usefulness in this postmodern 
time. In many cases the language games have gotten out of control. There 
are a lot of controversies about language in today's society. People get 
in trouble all of the time for their language. I and probably many other 
people believe that some of our society has gone to hell. There is a lot 
more of it on its way. Everything is changing and it is going fast. 
Lyotard has some interesting notions about the games. This makes me 
wonder about things like which is "the" true anything in our society.