Jean-François Lyotard is considered the pre-eminent non-Marxist philosopher of "the postmodern condition" (sometimes referred to as "postmodernity"). His work The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge (1984) originally published in Paris in 1979, became an instant cause célèbre. The book crystallised in an original interpretation a study of the status and development of knowledge, science and technology in advanced capitalist societies. The Postmodern Condition was important for a number of reasons. It developed a philosophical interpretation of the changing state of knowledge, science and education in the most highly developed societies, reviewing and synthesising research on contemporary science within the broader context of the sociology of postindustrial society and studies of postmodern culture.