Introduction: Jean-François Lyotard: Just education in passing

In April 1998 Jean-François Lyotard died. There is no doubt that the body of work that he leaves is remarkable: for its range, for its sustained concern with the relation of questions of language and justice, and for its perception of the affinity between questions of education and philosophy itself. His work throws light on numerous matters of critical importance for education: on its aims, legitimation, and accountability; on democracy, citizenship, and globalization; on colonialism and multiculturalism, pluralism and relativism; on capitalism, Marxism, and feminism; on rights and duties, privileges and obligations; on imagination, aesthetics, and moral judgment; on childhood and play. Lyotard’s continuing concern with ways of resisting or overcoming the encroachments of nihilism exposes ways in which our contemporary practices have become devalued. There is, it should be clear, no unitary “philosophy of education�? here; rather the inducement to think differently about these matters. His insights point repeatedly to the possibility of an education that is more just.