Jean-Francois Lyotard is recognized as one of the most significant French philosophers of the twentieth century. Although nearly all of his major writing has been translated into English, one important work has until now been unavailable. "Discourse, Figure" is Lyotard's thesis. Provoked in part by Lacan's influential seminars in Paris, "Discourse, Figure" distinguishes between the meaningfulness of linguistic signs and the meaningfulness of plastic arts such as painting and sculpture. Lyotard argues that because rational thought is discursive and works of art are inherentl.