Technical performativity now shapes what counts as scientific truth.

Evidence

But the fact remains that since performativity increases the ability to produce proof, it also increases the ability to be right: the technical criterion, introduced on a massive scale into scientific knowledge, cannot fail to influence the truth criterion. — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition, 344

Categorization

• XREF: Directly connects to Jameson’s critique of Lyotard in Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism — Jameson reads Lyotard’s performativity as commodification of knowledge. — connects to: The medium itself now produces truth rather than reflecting it. — Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation, 106; Research funding subordinates truth to the goal of performativity — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on…, 342; Science’s paralogy is the antimodel to the totalizing performativity system — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on…, 444 (+5 more)
• DEFINE: Introduces the performativity criterion (technical efficiency) as replacing the truth criterion in science — a key Lyotardian concept for the reader heading into Jameson.

Broader Connections

• Science’s paralogy is the antimodel to the totalizing performativity system #complicates (0.85) — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition, 444
• Efficiency is treated as uncontestable truth rather than a contestable value #exemplifies (0.82) — David Theo Goldberg, The Racial State, 121
• Postmodern science legitimates itself through difference, not maximized performance #qualifies (0.80) — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition, 423
• Each society has a regime of truth that determines what counts as true #expands (0.75)
• Science produces truth through competitive reputation incentives, not pure altruism. #expands (0.72) — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 853