Most of the attention paid by the academic community to Jean-Francois Lyotard is focused on his label of postmodern philosopher,which is biased.This article attempts to provide a new understanding of the development of his thoughts from the two key points of nihilism and the Sophists.First of all,nihilism is not just a social trend or a life creed,but has a long tradition in the history of Western thought,and is mainly related to the key themes of"nothingness"and negativity.Therefore,nihilism can be further divided into two basic forms:reduction and the absolute.Lyotard's own nihilism has roughly experienced a transformation from relative reduction to absolute abyss,and can be summarized as key points such as nothingness,events,and experience.This is also the fundamental difference between his and Nietzsche's classic definition of nihilism.Therefore,this also provides us with useful clues for reinterpreting many of Lyotard's representative works.The disputes and transformations between heterogeneous language games in La Condition Postmoderne and the in-depth elaboration of"silence"and"dommage"in Le Différend are all concentrated manifestations of his absolute and abyssal nihilism.But this also leads to two further questions:Based on the background of negativity,how can we make positive judgments?What kind of subject of thinking and action can be shaped by such judgments?For the first question,Lyotard derived the basic idea of"judgment without criteria"through his reinterpretation of Kant.This has largely broken through the paradigm of Kant's third critique,and further demonstrated the absolutely negative feature of creation"out of nothing."For the second question,the close connection between Lyotard and the Sophists is more worthy of attention.In La Condition Postmoderne,the question of"who is judging"has already been highlighted,and in works such as Moralités postmodernes,"L'anima minima"and its traumatic experience have often become the focus of discussion.But the most representative and summary response he gave is the dialogue collection Just Gaming.Here,Lyotard not only combines the background of Western intellectual history and carefully analyzes the many characteristics of the so-called"paganism"represented by the Sophists,but also brings these historical resources back to the current reality,trying to restart the potential for critical reflection and positive action contained therein.The seemingly ancient wisdom techniques,such as reTorsion,ruse,kairos,and so on,are reborn again and may become a powerful opportunity for philosophical judgment in the postmodern era.
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