Totalizing truth-seeking theory gets co-opted by the system’s optimization

Evidence

“Traditional” theory is always in danger of being incorporated into the programming of the social whole as a simple tool for the optimization of its performance; this is because its desire for a unitary and totalizing truth lends itself to the unitary and totalizing practice of the system’s managers. “Critical” theory, based on a principle of dualism and wary of syntheses and reconciliations, should be in a position to avoid this fate. What guides Marxism, then, is a different model of society, and a different conception of the function of the knowledge that can be produced by society and acquired from it. — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition, 154

Categorization

• XREF: This danger-of-co-option dynamic is central to Jameson’s suspicion of postmodern totalizing narratives. — connects to: Formal logic neutralizes contradiction and serves prediction and control — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 525; Mercantilization replaces truth-testing with saleability and efficiency as the criteria for knowledge — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on…, 373; Critique functions by questioning truth’s power effects and power’s truth effects — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism: A Critique of…, 84 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Critique functions by questioning truth’s power effects and power’s truth effects #complicates (0.78) — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 84
• Undifferentiated power conflates truth with decision-making authority #expands (0.75)