Postmodern society is a pragmatics of heterogeneous language games, not a Newtonian system.

Evidence

Thus the society of the future falls less within the province of a Newtonian anthropology (such as stucturalism or systems theory) than a pragmatics of language particles. There are many different language games—a heterogeneity of elements. They only give rise to institutions in patches—local determinism. — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition, 90

Categorization

• DEFINE: Establishes the language-games / local determinism framework as postmodern sociality’s organizing principle.
• XREF: Lyotard’s ‘language games’ derive from Wittgenstein; this is the point where he departs from structuralist ‘Newtonian’ totalizing — a key disagreement Jameson critiques. — connects to: Social language games are heteromorphous with no common metaprescriptions — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on…, 449; Heterogeneous language games yield only patchy, local institutional determinism. — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity: An…, 331; Postmodernism’s rejection of unified representation leads logically to pragmatic localism. — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity: An…, 353 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Social language games are heteromorphous with no common metaprescriptions #corroborates (0.90) — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition, 449
• Narrative and scientific knowledge are incommensurable language games with no common criterion #corroborates (0.90) — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition, 232
• Heterogeneous language games yield only patchy, local institutional determinism. #expands (0.85) — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, 331
• Postmodernism’s rejection of unified representation leads logically to pragmatic localism. #expands (0.80) — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, 353
• Speech is fundamentally agonistic play, not mere communication #corroborates (0.80) — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition, 142
• Wittgenstein conceives language-games as parts of an activity or form of life. #expands (0.80) — Philip Chase Bobbitt, Reflections Inspired by My Critics, 793
• Conversation shifts freely among language games while institutions filter them #expands (0.75) — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition, 178
• Aristotelian physics directly contradicts the Newtonian law of uniform inertial motion #exemplifies (0.75) — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 881