Lyotard and Bakhtin: Engaged Diversity in Education

This article compares the views of Mikhail Baktin and Jean-François Lyotard on difference and diversity. Both philosophers elevate diversity on a higher level, considering it to be a fundamental fact of human existence rather than a temporary and superficial phenomenon. However, while Lyotard emphasized the depth of differences amongst various discourses and language games, Bakhtin thought of diversity as a form of connection. Lyotard envisioned a multitude of separate and internally coherent discourses, while Bakhtin traced diversity within each discourse as well as among them. The Baktinian notion of the polyphonic truth helps to move diversity from an abstract goal into a working part of the educational enterprise.