--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Lyotard has described the postmodern…" description: "\"“Lyotard has described the postmodern condition succinctly as \"incredulity towards metanarratives\":' an attitude commendable in itself, no doubt, but a..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/017/david-bentley-hart-4691_modernism_lyotard-has-described-the-postmodern-con_1598922.jpg" --- # Lyotard has described the postmodern condition succinctly… ![“Lyotard has described the postmodern condition succinctly as "incredulity towards metanarratives":' an attitude commendable in itself, no doubt, but also one that can easily be translated into a dogmatic metanarrative of its own. In” quote by David Bentley Hart](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/017/david-bentley-hart-4691_modernism_lyotard-has-described-the-postmodern-con_1598922.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/017/david-bentley-hart-4691_modernism_lyotard-has-described-the-postmodern-con_1598922.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/017/david-bentley-hart-4691_modernism_lyotard-has-described-the-postmodern-con_1598922.jpg) > ““Lyotard has described the postmodern condition succinctly as "incredulity towards metanarratives":' an attitude commendable in itself, no doubt, but also one that can easily be translated into a dogmatic metanarrative of its own. In”” [David Bentley Hart](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-bentley-hart/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Postmodern skepticism toward grand narratives can become a new dogma if it is treated as an absolute belief. **In simple terms:** Questioning all stories can itself become a rigid belief. Key Takeaway Beware of turning doubt into dogma. Themes postmodernism skepticism dogma Mood critical thought‑provoking Type philosophical analytical When to use this quote - academic debate - media analysis - personal worldview Key Concepts philosophy meta‑narratives critical theory Questions to Reflect On - How do you balance healthy skepticism with openness? - When does doubt become a new certainty? A Different Perspective Risk of falling into relativism. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Described Postmodern](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/described-postmodern-6076718/) [Dogmatic Metanarrative](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/dogmatic-metanarrative-6076715/) [Incredulity Metanarratives](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/incredulity-metanarratives-4107249/) [Lyotard Described](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/lyotard-described-6076717/) [Metanarratives Attitude](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/metanarratives-attitude-6076716/) [Modernism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/modernism/) ## Related quotes > [“jSimplifying to the extreme, I define postmodern as incredulity toward metanarratives.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/j-f-lyotard-the-postmodern-condition-a-report-on-knowledge/jsimplifying-to-the-extreme-i-define-postmodern-as-incredulity-toward/) [J.F.Lyotard The POstmodern Condition A Report on Knowledge](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/j-f-lyotard-the-postmodern-condition-a-report-on-knowledge/) > [“Lyotard. The assertion that postmodernity is “incredulity toward metanarratives” is ultimately a claim to be affirmed by the church, pushing us to recover (a)…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-k-a-smith/lyotard-the-assertion-that-postmodernity-is-incredulity-toward/) [James K.A. Smith](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-k-a-smith/) > [Simplifying to the extreme, I define postmodern as incredulity toward metanarratives.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jean-francois-lyotard/simplifying-to-the-extreme-i-define-postmodern-as-incredulity-toward/) [Jean-Francois Lyotard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jean-francois-lyotard/) > [Modern paintings often seem to have been made quickly, by comparison with the paintings of earlier centuries, and that seems to give us the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-elkins/modern-paintings-often-seem-to-have-been-made-quickly-by-comparison/) [James Elkins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-elkins/) > [“Postmodernism has turned into this devil's vortex where no matter what you do, your neck will be turned and your face shoved into a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/brian-celio/postmodernism-has-turned-into-this-devil-s-vortex-where-no-matter/) [Brian Celio](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/brian-celio/) > [“Being postmodern, however, is about being complicit rather than virtuous, it is about approaching categories like Good and Evil with a certain ironic skepticism.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/veronica-hollinger/being-postmodern-however-is-about-being-complicit-rather-than/) [Veronica Hollinger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/veronica-hollinger/) > [“One of the many innovations of modernism was the new demands it placed on the audience. Music, painting, literature, even architecture, would never again…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/peter-watson/one-of-the-many-innovations-of-modernism-was-the-new-demands-it/) [Peter Watson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/peter-watson/) > [“He was in that familiar state - not that the occasion mattered to seriously to him -- of incoherent ideas spreading outward without a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-musil/he-was-in-that-familiar-state-not-that-the-occasion-mattered-to/) [Robert Musil](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-musil/) > [Altermodern is an in-progress redefinition of modernity in the era of globalisation, stressing the experience of wandering in time, space and mediums. The term…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nicolas-bourriaud/altermodern-is-an-in-progress-redefinition-of-modernity-in-the-era-of/) [Nicolas Bourriaud](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nicolas-bourriaud/) > [As for critical writing about modernism, its moments of lucidity are but fulgurations illuminating the dark and incomprehensible landscape of its subject's unabashed difficulty.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/will-self/as-for-critical-writing-about-modernism-its-moments-of-lucidity-are/) [Will Self](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/will-self/) > [A lot of '20s musicals were a hodgepodge of melodrama, mixed with operetta and romance, and then some sense of modernism and some sense…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-c-wolfe/a-lot-of-20s-musicals-were-a-hodgepodge-of-melodrama-mixed-with/) [George C. Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-c-wolfe/) > [“The first phase of modernism, which so far as the English language goes we associate with Pound and Yeats, Wyndham Lewis and Eliot and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frank-kermode/the-first-phase-of-modernism-which-so-far-as-the-english-language/) [Frank Kermode](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frank-kermode/) > [The modernist writers found despair inspirational.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mason-cooley/the-modernist-writers-found-despair-inspirational/) [Mason Cooley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mason-cooley/) > [A 'modern' man has nothing to add to modernism, if only because he has nothing to oppose it with. The well-adapted drop off the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elias-canetti/a-modern-man-has-nothing-to-add-to-modernism-if-only-because-he-has/) [Elias Canetti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elias-canetti/) > [I am not the avant-garde. I am the artist who comes after the advancing guard. I am more concerned with continuity of ideas and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nathan-oliveira/i-am-not-the-avant-garde-i-am-the-artist-who-comes-after-the/) [Nathan Oliveira](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nathan-oliveira/) ## More by David Bentley Hart > [“What makes today’s popular atheism so depressing is neither its conceptual boorishness nor its self-righteousness but simply its cultural inevitability. It is the final,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-bentley-hart/what-makes-today-s-popular-atheism-so-depressing-is-neither-its/) [David Bentley Hart](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-bentley-hart/) > [“The claim that there cannot be an infinite regress of contingent ontological causes raises a truly difficult challenge to pure materialism; but to imagine…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-bentley-hart/the-claim-that-there-cannot-be-an-infinite-regress-of-contingent/) [David Bentley Hart](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-bentley-hart/) > [“The very notion of nature as a closed system entirely sufficient to itself is plainly one that cannot be verified, deductively or empirically, from…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-bentley-hart/the-very-notion-of-nature-as-a-closed-system-entirely-sufficient-to/) [David Bentley Hart](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-bentley-hart/) > [“naturalism, alone among all considered philosophical attempts to describe the shape of reality, is radically insufficient in its explanatory range.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-bentley-hart/naturalism-alone-among-all-considered-philosophical-attempts-to/) [David Bentley Hart](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-bentley-hart/) > [Christianity has from its beginning portrayed itself as a gospel of peace, a way of reconciliation (with God, with other creatures), and a new…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-bentley-hart/christianity-has-from-its-beginning-portrayed-itself-as-a-gospel-of/) [David Bentley Hart](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-bentley-hart/) > [“clarity is a precious thing, to the degree it can be achieved, if only because it can spare us the effort of needless boring…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-bentley-hart/clarity-is-a-precious-thing-to-the-degree-it-can-be-achieved-if-only/) [David Bentley Hart](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-bentley-hart/) > [Empiricism in the sciences is a method; naturalism in philosophy is a metaphysics; and the latter neither follows from nor underlies the former.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-bentley-hart/empiricism-in-the-sciences-is-a-method-naturalism-in-philosophy-is-a/) [David Bentley Hart](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-bentley-hart/) > [“We trust, that is to say, that there is no substantial criterion by which to judge our choices that stands higher than the unquestioned…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-bentley-hart/we-trust-that-is-to-say-that-there-is-no-substantial-criterion-by/) [David Bentley Hart](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-bentley-hart/) > [For, after all, if it is from Christ that we are to learn how God relates himself to sin, suffering, evil, and death, it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-bentley-hart/for-after-all-if-it-is-from-christ-that-we-are-to-learn-how-god/) [David Bentley Hart](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-bentley-hart/) > [“All things are subject to time, moreover: they possess no complete identity in themselves, but are always in the process of becoming something else,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-bentley-hart/all-things-are-subject-to-time-moreover-they-possess-no-complete/) [David Bentley Hart](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-bentley-hart/) > [true philosophical atheism must be regarded as a superstition, often nurtured by an infantile wish to live in a world proportionate to one's own…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-bentley-hart/true-philosophical-atheism-must-be-regarded-as-a-superstition-often/) [David Bentley Hart](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-bentley-hart/) > [“It goes without saying that one generally should not try to dissolve disparate creeds into one another, much less into some vague, syncretistic, doctrinally…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-bentley-hart/it-goes-without-saying-that-one-generally-should-not-try-to-dissolve/) [David Bentley Hart](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-bentley-hart/) > [God's pleasure--the beauty creation possesses in his regard--underlies the distinct being of creation, and so beauty is the first and truest word concerning all…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-bentley-hart/god-s-pleasure-the-beauty-creation-possesses-in-his-regard-underlies/) [David Bentley Hart](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-bentley-hart/) > [“The general argument from the contingent to the absolute, or from the conditioned to the unconditioned, is a powerful and cogent one. No attempt,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-bentley-hart/the-general-argument-from-the-contingent-to-the-absolute-or-from-the/) [David Bentley Hart](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-bentley-hart/) > [“Simply said, one is contingent through and through, partaking of being rather than generating it out of some source within oneself; and the same…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-bentley-hart/simply-said-one-is-contingent-through-and-through-partaking-of-being/) [David Bentley Hart](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-bentley-hart/) [Explore all 107 David Bentley Hart quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-bentley-hart/) ## More Modernism quotes > [I am not the avant-garde. I am the artist who comes after the advancing guard. I am more concerned with continuity of ideas and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nathan-oliveira/i-am-not-the-avant-garde-i-am-the-artist-who-comes-after-the/) [Nathan Oliveira](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nathan-oliveira/) > [A 'modern' man has nothing to add to modernism, if only because he has nothing to oppose it with. The well-adapted drop off the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elias-canetti/a-modern-man-has-nothing-to-add-to-modernism-if-only-because-he-has/) [Elias Canetti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elias-canetti/) > [The modernist writers found despair inspirational.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mason-cooley/the-modernist-writers-found-despair-inspirational/) [Mason Cooley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mason-cooley/) > [“The first phase of modernism, which so far as the English language goes we associate with Pound and Yeats, Wyndham Lewis and Eliot and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frank-kermode/the-first-phase-of-modernism-which-so-far-as-the-english-language/) [Frank Kermode](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frank-kermode/) > [A lot of '20s musicals were a hodgepodge of melodrama, mixed with operetta and romance, and then some sense of modernism and some sense…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-c-wolfe/a-lot-of-20s-musicals-were-a-hodgepodge-of-melodrama-mixed-with/) [George C. Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-c-wolfe/) > [As for critical writing about modernism, its moments of lucidity are but fulgurations illuminating the dark and incomprehensible landscape of its subject's unabashed difficulty.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/will-self/as-for-critical-writing-about-modernism-its-moments-of-lucidity-are/) [Will Self](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/will-self/) > [Altermodern is an in-progress redefinition of modernity in the era of globalisation, stressing the experience of wandering in time, space and mediums. The term…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nicolas-bourriaud/altermodern-is-an-in-progress-redefinition-of-modernity-in-the-era-of/) [Nicolas Bourriaud](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nicolas-bourriaud/) > [“He was in that familiar state - not that the occasion mattered to seriously to him -- of incoherent ideas spreading outward without a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-musil/he-was-in-that-familiar-state-not-that-the-occasion-mattered-to/) [Robert Musil](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-musil/) > [“One of the many innovations of modernism was the new demands it placed on the audience. Music, painting, literature, even architecture, would never again…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/peter-watson/one-of-the-many-innovations-of-modernism-was-the-new-demands-it/) [Peter Watson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/peter-watson/) > [“Being postmodern, however, is about being complicit rather than virtuous, it is about approaching categories like Good and Evil with a certain ironic skepticism.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/veronica-hollinger/being-postmodern-however-is-about-being-complicit-rather-than/) [Veronica Hollinger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/veronica-hollinger/) > [“Postmodernism has turned into this devil's vortex where no matter what you do, your neck will be turned and your face shoved into a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/brian-celio/postmodernism-has-turned-into-this-devil-s-vortex-where-no-matter/) [Brian Celio](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/brian-celio/) > [Modern paintings often seem to have been made quickly, by comparison with the paintings of earlier centuries, and that seems to give us the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-elkins/modern-paintings-often-seem-to-have-been-made-quickly-by-comparison/) [James Elkins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-elkins/) > [Photography was seen as the enemy of all the values of late modernism... and as things turned out, it was.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mel-bochner/photography-was-seen-as-the-enemy-of-all-the-values-of-late-modernism/) [Mel Bochner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mel-bochner/) > [Private information is practically the source of every large modern fortune.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/oscar-wilde/private-information-is-practically-the-source-of-every-large-modern/) [Oscar Wilde](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/oscar-wilde/) > [The notion that you could discard the old world and now make a new one. This is what was so bad about Modernism.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-jacobs/the-notion-that-you-could-discard-the-old-world-and-now-make-a-new/) [Jane Jacobs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-jacobs/) [Browse all 350 Modernism quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/modernism/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Lyotard has described the postmodern condition succinctly as \"incredulity towards metanarratives\":' an attitude commendable in itself, no doubt, but also one that can easily be translated into a dogmatic metanarrative of its own. 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