The Judgement of the Inhuman

The conclusion to this book stakes out the key claims that have been developed in the studies collected here. It argues that the uniqueness and value of Lyotard’s approach to nihilism lies in his refusal of the temptation to overcome it through a notion of unity, and his embrace of incommensurable differences. Lyotard contributes to a thinking of the posthuman and the information society by acknowledging the displacements of the human that science and technology effect, but also by resisting any collapse into a scientism or naturalism which sees no difference between natural or technological processes and political, ethical, or vitalist principles. For him, art functions as a countermovement to nihilism by resisting the demand to give up everything to that which can be calculated, a functional demand made everywhere today in the interests of performativity and in the name of development. For these reasons, Lyotard remains a thinker for our time.