Efficiency is a concept that is intuitively associated with business and economics, rather than philosophy. For most of philosophy's history, efficiency was largely untouched, and was largely secondary to the ahistorical, metaphysical and epistemological questions. In modern times, this has changed and the concept of efficiency has played an increasingly important role within the various contemporary philosophical traditions. This is no more apparent than in postmodernism. Although difficult to categorize as a unified system of thought, postmodernism does seem to have an overall fixation on efficiency's crucial role in society and structures of meaning. Two thinkers that especially focus on this issue are Jean-Francois Lyotard and Michel Foucault;
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Legitimation refers to the process in which a legislator is authorizes to determine whether a given statement should be included in the discourse of the scientific knowledge (Lyotard 7). Denotative knowledge faces a "crisis of legitimation" in which it needs to refer to narrative knowledge in order to be accepted. These two grand narratives were emancipatory narrative and speculative narrative. Emancipatory knowledge held that denotative knowledge was essential to humankind's liberation; the more that we understood, the greater our society would become. Speculative knowledge held that knowledge was done "for its own sake"; knowledge finds legitimation within itself and states what the state and society are (Lyotard 38). These two grand narratives were what legitimated denotative knowledge until recent …show more content…
Power-relationships are what constitute knowledge; knowledge's empirical roots are found in the various organizations of power. Efficiency is in the Foucauldian context is simply the most efficient method of control and organization over bodies. Efficiency ultimately serves the axis of power; the most efficient method of control creates knowledge; which in turn helps to strengthen the power structure. This is similar to the Lyotardian sense in that power is self-legitimating (Lyotard 47). The difference between the two conceptions is that truth as concept has always been a result of the most efficient way to control people; Lyotard at least distinguished the language-games of truth and justice from the ones of power (Lyotard 49). For Foucault, all knowledge stems from power. Foucault differs in that there never was a grand narrative in which legitimated knowledge; the discourses changed only when more efficient means and methods of control became available. Foucault differs from Lyotard, in that the relationship between knowledge and efficiency has always been
Legitimation refers to the process in which a legislator is authorizes to determine whether a given statement should be included in the discourse of the scientific knowledge (Lyotard 7). Denotative knowledge faces a "crisis of legitimation" in which it needs to refer to narrative knowledge in order to be accepted. These two grand narratives were emancipatory narrative and speculative narrative. Emancipatory knowledge held that denotative knowledge was essential to humankind's liberation; the more that we understood, the greater our society would become. Speculative knowledge held that knowledge was done "for its own sake"; knowledge finds legitimation within itself and states what the state and society are (Lyotard 38). These two grand narratives were what legitimated denotative knowledge until recent …show more content…
Power-relationships are what constitute knowledge; knowledge's empirical roots are found in the various organizations of power. Efficiency is in the Foucauldian context is simply the most efficient method of control and organization over bodies. Efficiency ultimately serves the axis of power; the most efficient method of control creates knowledge; which in turn helps to strengthen the power structure. This is similar to the Lyotardian sense in that power is self-legitimating (Lyotard 47). The difference between the two conceptions is that truth as concept has always been a result of the most efficient way to control people; Lyotard at least distinguished the language-games of truth and justice from the ones of power (Lyotard 49). For Foucault, all knowledge stems from power. Foucault differs in that there never was a grand narrative in which legitimated knowledge; the discourses changed only when more efficient means and methods of control became available. Foucault differs from Lyotard, in that the relationship between knowledge and efficiency has always been