Objective Fictions: Philosophy, Psychoanalysis, Marxism

Published by Edinburgh University Press 2022

Objective Fictions

Philosophy, Psychoanalysis, Marxism

Edited by: Adrian Johnston

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781474489348

Overview
Contents

About this book

Rethinks objectivity and fiction in contemporary philosophy, psychoanalysis and Marxism – beyond the realism–nominalism divide

Rethinks the concept of objectivity through its relation to fiction beyond their mere opposition
Conceptualises 'objective fictions'
Highlights a shared background underpinning realist and nominalist approaches to the relation between subjectivity and objectivity
Revitalises modern/contemporary philosophical currents, psychoanalytic theory and the Marxist critique of political economy beyond the realism-nominalism divide
Includes contributions from a mix of renowned thinkers and from the new generation, including Slavoj Žižek, Mladen Dolar, Frank Ruda and Samo Tomšič

Relying on contemporary continental philosophy, psychoanalytic theory and the Marxist tradition, this volume moves beyond the deadlock between nominalism and realism. It rethinks the relationship between objectivity and fiction through engaging with a series of 'objective fictions', including fetishes, semblances, lies, rumours, sophistry, fantasies, and conspiracy theories, among other phenomena. What all these phenomena exhibit are paradoxical entanglements of subjectivity with objectivity and of fiction with truth.

When it comes to questions of objectivity in current philosophical debates and public discourse, we are witnessing the re-emergence and growing importance of two classical, opposed approaches: nominalism and (metaphysical) realism. Today’s nominalist stances, by absolutizing intersubjectivity, are moving towards the abandonment of the very notion of truth and objective reality. By contrast, today’s realist positions, including those bound up with scientific discourse, insist on the category of the object-in-itself as irreducible to any kind of subjective mediation. However, despite their seeming mutual exclusivity, both approaches share fundamental presuppositions, namely, those of neat separations between the spheres of subjectivity and objectivity as well as between the realms of fiction and truth.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Acknowledgements Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Notes on Contributors Publicly Available Download PDF	viii
Introduction: Beyond the Nominalism-Realism Divide: Objective Fictions from Bentham through Marx to Lacan Adrian Johnston, Boštjan Nedoh and Alenka Zupančič Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1 Marx’s Theory of Fictions Slavoj Žižek Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	13
2 Is Surplus Value Structured Like an Anamorphosis? Marx, Lacan and the Structure of Objective Fiction Boštjan Nedoh Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	24
3 Shades of Green: Lacan and Capitalism’s Veils Adrian Johnston Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	45
4 From the Orderly World to the Polluted Unworld Samo Tomšič Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	64
5 The Genesis of a False Dichotomy: A Critique of Conceptual Alienation Cara S. Greene Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	85
6 Nietzsche’s Critique of Objectivity and Its ‘Tools’ Aleš Bunta Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	105
7 Tips and Tricks: Remarks on the Debate between Badiou and Cassin on ‘Sophistics’ Peter Klepec Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	124
8 On Rumours, Gossip and Related Matters Mladen Dolar Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	144
9 ‘There is no such thing as the subject that thinks’: Wittgenstein and Lacan on Truth and the Subject Paul M. Livingston Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	165
10 The Awful Truth: Games and Their Relation to the Unconscious Amanda Holmes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	183
11 The Objective Construction: Freud and the Primal Scene Tadej Troha Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	198
12 (From the Lie in the Closed World to) Lying in an Infinite Universe Frank Ruda Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	217
13 A Short Essay on Conspiracy Theories Alenka Zupančič Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	232
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	250

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Audience: College/higher education;
Pages
- Main content: 272
Keywords: Philosophy

eBook

Published: May 9, 2022
ISBN: 9781474489348