Ilm Par Ek Report by Jean-François Lyotard

One of the most influential philosophical texts of the 20th century: “Ilm Par Ek Report” (A Report on Knowledge) by the French philosopher Jean-François Lyotard. Subtitled “Ma Ba’ad Jadeed Surat-e-Hal” (The Postmodern Condition), this work is credited with popularizing the term “postmodernism” in the social sciences and humanities.

The book explores how the nature of knowledge has shifted in highly developed societies. Lyotard argues that “grand narratives”—the overarching ideologies and absolute truths like Marxism or the Enlightenment—have lost their credibility. Instead, we have moved into an era of “language games” and localized truths. He specifically examines how the computerization of society has turned knowledge into a commodity, changing how it is produced, stored, and consumed.

Translated into Urdu by Asghar Basheer, this edition is a vital resource for Urdu-speaking scholars and students of philosophy, sociology, and literary theory who wish to engage with contemporary debates on truth, power, and the digital age.