Research funding subordinates truth to the goal of performativity

Evidence

The production of proof, which is in principle only part of an argumentation process designed to win agreement from the addressees of scientific messages, thus falls under the control of another language game, in which the goal is no longer truth, but performativity—that is, the best possible input/output equation. The State and/or company must abandon the idealist and humanist narratives of legitimation in order to justify the new goal: in the discourse of today’s financial backers of research, the only credible goal is power. Scientists, technicians, and instruments are purchased not to find truth, but to augment power. — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition, 342

Categorization

• XREF: This is Lyotard’s direct claim about why metanarratives fail—the profit motive replaces truth-narratives. Jameson answers by insisting these are still late-capitalist ideology, not genuine emancipation. — connects to: A performativity-driven system defines needs by their value to performance, not by suffering — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on…, 438; Technical performativity now shapes what counts as scientific truth. — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on…, 344; Science’s paralogy is the antimodel to the totalizing performativity system — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on…, 444 (+9 more)
• SEED: Essay angle: how grant-funding and university performativity metrics literally operationalize Lyotard’s claim—‘scientists are purchased to augment power’ as a description of citation-index culture.

Broader Connections

• Technical performativity now shapes what counts as scientific truth. #corroborates (0.90) — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition, 344
• A performativity-driven system defines needs by their value to performance, not by suffering #expands (0.85) — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition, 438
• Society funds organizations, not the truths they seek #corroborates (0.85)
• System theory’s true goal is performativity, optimizing input-output ratios #expands (0.82) — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition, 148
• Science’s paralogy is the antimodel to the totalizing performativity system #qualifies (0.80) — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition, 444
• Science’s trustworthiness rests on being intersubjective and collective #complicates (0.78) — Holm Gero Hümmler, Ulrike Schiesser, Fact and Prejudice, 748
• Science and professions maintain trustworthiness through incentive structures and reputation #contradicts (0.75) — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 850
• Performance excellence destabilizes norms in Butler’s model but consolidates them in piety practice #exemplifies (0.72) — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety, 1115
• Commercial conflicts of interest in science threaten public trust in research #exemplifies (0.72) — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 857