Weber, Lyotard and the Aesthetic Sphere

The writings of Max Weber and Jean-François Lyotard appear at first glance to lie in radical opposition. The work of Weber, on the one hand, is of a typically modern nature, centring on the power politics of the nation-state, the meaning of social action and the affinity between religious ethics and the rationalization and disenchantment of the world. The work of Lyotard, on the other, became typically postmodern, and attacks modern forms of representation, authority, power and justice. In spite of this, however, there are important points of convergence between these two thinkers over the question of cultural rationalization. These points will be addressed in the present chapter through analysis of Weber’s and Lyotard’s respective positions on three key issues: first, the nature of modern and postmodern science; second, the form and consequences of cultural differentiation; and, finally, the aesthetic sphere as a possible site of resistance to, or even escape from, Western rationalism. Special reference will be made to the work of Charles Turner (1990) throughout the course this chapter, for it provides a useful starting point for reading between Weber and Lyotard, and for addressing the question of cultural differentiation in particular.