Educational Psychology—Limitations and Possibilities

462 The Praeger Handbook of Education and Psychology
very beginning of a subject being studied. Primitive language games can mesmerize the mature
student into the false sense that everything has already been figured out, that there is nothing to
do but commit the work of wise teachers to memory.
And, again, shattering that sense of an already understood universe, of course, is what postmodernism
is about. It is about building a spaceship that permits the student to escape disinterest
in the service of fashioning a future life even before the parameters of that life are known.
TERMS FOR READERS
Language Game —This is Wittgensein’s term. In general, language game refers to a somewhat
bounded rule-governed subsegment of ordinary language. For example, answering the question
“How are you?” would differ depending whether the speaker was playing the greeting language
game, or the language game of doctor and patient. The term language game, however, is used
in several related senses. For example, a primitive language game is a training tool for the most
elementary forms of language. Wittgenstein, however, felt that the whole of language consisted
of countless language games, many being invented, and many passing away. Some of the most
interesting language games are the ones that require prior training with primitive language games.
The term language game is also sometimes used for the whole of language.
Meta-narrative—This is Lyotard’s term. It means a story or narrative that is presumed to
have great generality and represents a final and absolute truth. Lyotard’s famous definition
of postmodernism is, “Simplifying to the extreme, I define postmodern as incredulity toward
metanarratives.”
Paralogy—It is a stimulating conversation that generates ideas without necessarily resulting in
consensus. These new ideas emerge, in large part, because paralogy encourages speakers to define
the rules of language terms locally and provisionally. That is, in a local conversation a person
might say, “I am using the word in this sense.” Also, in paralogy, the speakers do not strive for
consensus but value a diversity of opinion because the point is to create new ideas, and new ideas
seem to emerge best when there are varied opinions being expressed and when the listeners are
looking for inspiration rather than mastery of complete theories.
REFERENCES
Lyotard, J. F. (1984). The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Minneapolis: University of
Minnesota Press.
Shawver, L. (2006). Nostalgic Postmodernism: Postmodern Therapy, Vol. 1. Oakland, CA: Paralogic Press.
Wittgenstein, L. (1953). Philosophical Investigations. New York: The Macmillan Co.