Jean-François Lyotard: Body

Jean-François Lyotard was French philosopher. Explore interesting quotes on body.
Jean-François Lyotard: 52 quotes4 likes

“Philosophy is possible only because the material ensemble called “man” is endowed with very sophisticated software. But also, this software, human language, is dependent on the condition of the hardware. Now: the hardware will be consumed in the solar explosion, taking philosophical thought with it (along with all other thought) as it goes up in flames. So the problem of the technological sciences can be stated as follows: how can we provide this software with a hardware that is independent of the conditions of life on earth? That is: how can we make thought without a body possible?”

Jean-François Lyotard

Source: Thought Without a Body? (1994), p. 291

“The body might be considered the hardware of the complex technical device that is human thought.”

Jean-François Lyotard

Source: Thought Without a Body? (1994), p. 291

“Matter asks no questions, expects no answers of us. It ignores us. It made us the way it makes all bodies—by chance and according to its laws.”

Jean-François Lyotard

Source: Thought Without a Body? (1994), p. 289

“In the discussion we had last year at Siegen, in this regard, emphasis was put on the sort of emptiness that has to be obtained from mind and body by a Japanese warrior-artist when doing calligraphy, by an actor when acting: the kind of suspension of ordinary intentions of mind associated with habitus, or arrangements of the body. It’s at this cost, said Glenn and Andreas, … that a brush encounters the “right” shapes, that a voice and a theatrical gesture are endowed with the “right” tone and look. The soliciting of emptiness, this evacuation—very much the opposite of overweening, selective identificatory activity—doesn’t take place without some suffering. … The body and mind have to be free of burdens for grace to touch us.”

Jean-François Lyotard

Source: Thought Without a Body? (1994), p. 296