In this new book, SlavojŽižek and Glyn Daly engage in a series of entertaining conversations which illustrate the originality of Žižek’s thinking on psychoanalysis, philosophy, multiculturalism, popular/cyber culture, totalitarianism, ethics and politics. An excellent introduction to one of the most engaging and controversial cultural theorists writing today. Žižek is a Slovenian sociologist who trained as a Lacanian and uses Lacan to analyse popular culture and politics. Illustrates the originality of Žižek’s thinking on psychoanalysis, philosophy, (...) multi-culturalism, popular/cyber culture, totalitarianism, ethics and politics. Provides a unique glimpse of Žižek’s humour and character and offers new material and fresh perspectives which will be of interest to followers of Žižek’s writings. (shrink)
In this new book, SlavojŽižek and Glyn Daly engage in a series of entertaining conversations which illustrate the originality of Žižek’s thinking on psychoanalysis, philosophy, multiculturalism, popular/cyber culture, totalitarianism, ethics and politics. An excellent introduction to one of the most engaging and controversial cultural theorists writing today. Žižek is a Slovenian sociologist who trained as a Lacanian and uses Lacan to analyse popular culture and politics. Illustrates the originality of Žižek’s thinking on psychoanalysis, philosophy, (...) multi-culturalism, popular/cyber culture, totalitarianism, ethics and politics. Provides a unique glimpse of Žižek’s humour and character and offers new material and fresh perspectives which will be of interest to followers of Žižek’s writings. (shrink)
Book synopsis: There should no longer be any doubt: global capitalism is fast approaching its terminal crisis. SlavojŽižek has identified the four horsemen of this coming apocalypse: the worldwide ecological crisis; imbalances within the economic system; the biogenetic revolution; and exploding social divisions and ruptures. But, he asks, if the end of capitalism seems to many like the end of the world, how is it possible for Western society to face up to the end times? In a (...) major new analysis of our global situation, Žižek argues that our collective responses to economic Armageddon correspond to the stages of grief: ideological denial, explosions of anger and attempts at bargaining, followed by depression and withdrawal. For this edition, Žižek has written a long afterword that leaves almost no subject untouched, from WikiLeaks to the nature of the Chinese Communist Party. (shrink)
Book synopsis: Philosopher, cultural critic, and agent provocateur SlavojŽižek constructs a fascinating new framework to look at the forces of violence in our world. Using history, philosophy, books, movies, Lacanian psychiatry, and jokes, SlavojŽižek examines the ways we perceive and misperceive violence. Drawing from his unique cultural vision, Žižek brings new light to the Paris riots of 2005; he questions the permissiveness of violence in philanthropy; in daring terms, he reflects on the powerful (...) image and determination of contemporary terrorists. Violence, Žižek states, takes three forms--subjective, objective, and systemic --and often one form of violence blunts our ability to see the others, raising complicated questions. Does the advent of capitalism and, indeed, civilization cause more violence than it prevents? Is there violence in the simple idea of "the neighbour"? And could the appropriate form of action against violence today simply be to contemplate, to think? Beginning with these and other equally contemplative questions, Žižek discusses the inherent violence of globalization, capitalism, fundamentalism, and language, in a work that will confirm his standing as one of our most erudite and incendiary modern thinkers. (shrink)
The latest book by the Slovenian critic Slavoj Zizek takes the work of French philosopher Gilles Deleuze as the beginning of a dazzling inquiry into the realms of radical politics, philosophy, film (Hitchcock, Fight Club ), and psychoanalysis. Of Organs without Bodies Joan Copjec ( Imagine There's No Woman ) has written: "With all his ususal humor and invention, Zizek -- the acknowledged master of the 180 degree turn -- here takes a trip into "enemy" territory to deliver Deleuze (...) of a marvelously rebellious child, one that seriously challenges Deleuze's other progeny with a surprising but convincing bid for succession. Those who thought Deleuze's forward march into the future would follow a straight path are forced to rethink their stance. From now on all readings of Deleuze will have to take a detour through this important -- even necessary -- book." Eric Santner ( On the Psychopathology of Everyday Life ) describes Organs without Bodies as offering "an entirely new degree of conceptual clarity and political urgency. Through his deep engagement with the logic of Deleuze's project, Zizek opens up new possibilities of thought beyond the terms of the current political debates on globalization, democratization, war on terror. Once again, Zizek has produced an utterly timely and radically untimely meditation." Recently profiled in The New Yorker , and hailed by the Village Voice as "the giant of Ljubljana," Zizek is one of the most provocative and entertaining thinkers at work today. (shrink)
Book synopsis: In this combative major new work, philosophical sharpshooter Slavoj Zizek looks for the kernel of truth in the totalitarian politics of the past. Examining Heidegger's seduction by fascism and Foucault's flirtation with the Iranian Revolution, he suggests that these were the 'right steps in the wrong direction.' On the revolutionary terror of Robespierre, Mao and the bolsheviks, Zizek argues that while these struggles ended in historic failure and horror, there was a valuable core of idealism lost beneath (...) the bloodshed. A redemptive vision has been obscured by the soft, decentralized politics of the liberal-democratic consensus. Faced with the coming ecological crisis, Zizekk argues the case for revolutionary terror and the dictatorship of the proletariat. A return to past ideals is needed despite the risks. In the words of Samuel Beckett: 'Try again. Fail again. Fail better.'. (shrink)
What is the basis of belief in an era when globalization, multiculturalism and big business are the new religion? Slavoj Zizek, renowned philosopher and irrepressible cultural critic takes on all comers in this compelling and breathless new book. From 'cyberspace reason' to the paradox that is 'Western Buddhism', _On Belief_ gets behind the contours of the way we normally think about belief, in particular Judaism and Christianity. Holding up the so-called authenticity of religious belief to critical light, Zizek draws (...) on psychoanalysis, film and philosophy to reveal in startling fashion that nothing could be worse for believers than their beliefs turning out to be true. (shrink)
In the space of barely more than five years, with the publication of four pathbreaking books, SlavojŽižek has earned the reputation of being one of the most arresting, insightful, and scandalous thinkers in recent memory. Perhaps more than any other single author, his writings have constituted the most compelling evidence available for recognizing Jacques Lacan as the preemient philosopher of our time. In _Tarrying with the Negative_, Žižek challenges the contemporary critique of ideology, and in doing (...) so opens the way for a new understanding of social conflict, particularly the recent outbursts of nationalism and ethnic struggle. Are we, Žižek asks, confined to a postmodern universe in which truth is reduced to the contingent effect of various discursive practices and where our subjectivity is dispersed through a multitude of ideological positions? _No_ is his answer, and the way out is a return to philosophy. This revisit to German Idealism allows Žižek to recast the critique of ideology as a tool for disclosing the dynamic of our society, a crucial aspect of which is the debate over nationalism, particularly as it has developed in the Balkans—Žižek's home. He brings the debate over nationalism into the sphere of contemporary cultural politics, breaking the impasse centered on nationalisms simultaneously fascistic and anticolonial aspirations. Provocatively, Žižek argues that what drives nationalistic and ethnic antagonism is a collectively driven refusal of our own enjoyment. Using examples from popular culture and high theory to illuminate each other—opera, film noir, capitalist universalism, religious and ethnic fundamentalism—this work testifies to the fact that, far more radically than the postmodern sophists, Kant and Hegel are our contemporaries. (shrink)
Presents collected writings of Slavoj Zizek - one of the world's leading contemporary cultural commentators. Drawing upon a range of his prolific output, the articles here cover psychoanalysis, philosophy and popular culture.
In _Civilization and Its Discontents_, Freud made abundantly clear what he thought about the biblical injunction, first articulated in Leviticus 19:18 and then elaborated in Christian teachings, to love one's neighbor as oneself. "Let us adopt a naive attitude towards it," he proposed, "as though we were hearing it for the first time; we shall be unable then to suppress a feeling of surprise and bewilderment." After the horrors of World War II, the Holocaust, Stalinism, and Yugoslavia, Leviticus 19:18 seems (...) even less conceivable—but all the more urgent now—than Freud imagined. In _The Neighbor_, three of the most significant intellectuals working in psychoanalysis and critical theory collaborate to show how this problem of neighbor-love opens questions that are fundamental to ethical inquiry and that suggest a new theological configuration of political theory. Their three extended essays explore today's central historical problem: the persistence of the theological in the political. In "Towards a Political Theology of the Neighbor," Kenneth Reinhard supplements Carl Schmitt's political theology of the enemy and friend with a political theology of the neighbor based in psychoanalysis. In "Miracles Happen," Eric L. Santner extends the book's exploration of neighbor-love through a bracing reassessment of Benjamin and Rosenzweig. And in an impassioned plea for ethical violence, SlavojŽižek's "Neighbors and Other Monsters" reconsiders the idea of excess to rehabilitate a positive sense of the inhuman and challenge the influence of Levinas on contemporary ethical thought. A rich and suggestive account of the interplay between love and hate, self and other, personal and political, _The Neighbor_ will prove to be a touchstone across the humanities and a crucial text for understanding the persistence of political theology in secular modernity. (shrink)
SlavojŽižek argues that Rand's fascination for male figures displaying absolute, unswayable determination of their Will, seems to offer the best imaginable confirmation of Sylvia Plath's famous line, "every woman adores a Fascist." But the properly subversive dimension of Rand's ideological procedure is not to be underestimated: Rand fits into the line of c overconformist' authors who undermine the ruling ideological edifice by their very excessive identification with it. Her over-orthodoxy was directed at capitalism itself; for Rand, the (...) truly heretic thing today is to embrace the basic premise of capitalism without its sugar-coating. (shrink)
"Is it meaningful to call oneself a democrat? And if so, how do you interpret the word?" -/- In responding to this question, eight iconoclastic thinkers prove the rich potential of democracy, along with its critical weaknesses, and reconceive the practice to accommodate new political and cultural realities. Giorgio Agamben traces the tense history of constitutions and their coexistence with various governments. Alain Badiou contrasts current democratic practice with democratic communism. Daniel Bensaid ponders the institutionalization of democracy, while Wendy Brown (...) discusses the democratization of society under neoliberalism. Jean-Luc Nancy measures the difference between democracy as a form of rule and as a human end, and Jacques Rancière highlights its egalitarian nature. Kristin Ross identifies hierarchical relationships within democratic practice, and Slavoj Zizek complicates the distinction between those who desire to own the state and those who wish to do without it. -/- Concentrating on the classical roots of democracy and its changing meaning over time and within different contexts, these essays uniquely defend what is left of the left-wing tradition after the fall of Soviet communism. They confront disincentives to active democratic participation that have caused voter turnout to decline in western countries, and they address electoral indifference by invoking and reviving the tradition of citizen involvement. Passionately written and theoretically rich, this collection speaks to all facets of modern political and democratic debate. (shrink)
What do we know about Hegel? What do we know about Marx? What do we know about democracy and totalitarianism? Communism and psychoanalysis? What do we know that isn't a platitude that we've heard a thousand times - or a self-satisfied certainty? Through his brilliant reading of Hegel, Slavoj Zizek - one of the most provocative and widely-read thinkers of our time - upends our traditional understanding, dynamites every cliché and undermines every conviction in order to clear the ground (...) for new ways of answering these questions. When Lacan described Hegel as the ‘most sublime hysteric’, he was referring to the way that the hysteric asks questions because he experiences his own desire as if it were the Other's desire. In the dialectical process, the question asked of the Other is resolved through a reflexive turn in which the question begins to function as its own answer. We had made Hegel into the theorist of abstraction and reaction, but by reading Hegel with Lacan, Zizek unveils a Hegel of the concrete and of revolution - his own, and the one to come. This early and dazzlingly original work by Zizek offers a unique insight into the ideas which have since become hallmarks of his mature thought. It will be of great interest to anyone interested in critical theory, philosophy and contemporary social thought. (shrink)
The Cartesian cogito—the principle articulated by Descartes that "I think, therefore I am"—is often hailed as the precursor of modern science. At the same time, the cogito's agent, the ego, is sometimes feared as the agency of manipulative domination responsible for all present woes, from patriarchal oppression to ecological catastrophes. Without psychoanalyzing philosophy, _Cogito and the Unconscious_ explores the vicissitudes of the cogito and shows that psychoanalyses can render visible a constitutive madness within modern philosophy, the point at which "I (...) think, therefore I am" becomes obsessional neurosis characterized by "If I stop thinking, I will cease to exist." Noting that for Lacan the Cartesian construct is the same as the Freudian "subject of the unconscious," the contributors follow Lacan's plea for a psychoanalytic return to the cogito. Along the path of this return, they examine the ethical attitude that befits modern subjectivity, the inherent sexualization of modern subjectivity, the impasse in which the Cartesian project becomes involved given the enigmatic status of the human body, and the Cartesian subject's confrontation with its modern critics, including Althusser, Bataille, and Dennett. In a style that has become familiar to Žižek's readers, these essays bring together a strict conceptual analysis and an approach to a wide range of cultural and ideological phenomena—from the sadist paradoxes of Kant's moral philosophy to the universe of Ayn Rand's novels, from the question "Which, if any, is the sex of the cogito?" to the defense of the cogito against the onslaught of cognitive sciences. Challenging us to reconsider fundamental notions of human consciousness and modern subjectivity, this is a book whose very Lacanian orthodoxy makes it irreverently transgressive of predominant theoretical paradigms. _Cogito and the Unconscious_ will appeal to readers interested in philosophy, psychoanalysis, cultural studies, and theories of ideology. _Contributors. _Miran Bozovic, Mladen Dolar, Alain Grosrichard, Marc de Kessel, Robert Pfaller, Renata Salecl, SlavojŽižek, Alenka Zupancic. (shrink)
Jak opisać współczesne Chiny? Gdzie szukać analogii dla ich dzisiejszego dynamicznego rozwoju? W komentarzach często powraca teza, że Państwo Środka wybrało własną, absolutnie unikalną drogę rozwoju. Inni wskazują na podobieństwa z ewolucją kapitalizmu w Europie Zachodniej - Chiny miałyby teraz przechodzić jej najbardziej brutalną XIX-wieczną fazę. Dopiero w przyszłości "naturalną" koleją rzeczy zapanuje tam demokracja i upowszechnią się instytucje państwa opiekuńczego. SlavojŽižek proponuje jeszcze inną interpretację - błyskotliwą i pełną paradoksów. Być może rzeczywiście Chiny odtwarzają pewną fazę (...) rozwoju zachodniego kapitalizmu. Jest to jednak faza na tyle wczesna, że na ewentualną demokratyzację Państwa Środka będziemy musieli czekać jeszcze wiele lat. Bardziej prawdopodobne jest jednak to, że mamy dziś do czynienia z powtórką rewolucji kulturalnej z czasów Mao Tse-Tunga. Tak jak wtedy zachęca się obywateli, by podejmowali "spontaniczne" działania, które partia czujnie nadzoruje. Tym razem jednak ich celem jest budowa nowych, kapitalistycznych porządków. (shrink)
SlavojŽižek twierdzi, że odrzucenie traktatu konstytucyjnego i kryzys UE w jej dotychczasowym - postpolitycznym i technokratycznym - kształcie otwiera pole dla realizacji bardziej radykalnego politycznego projektu. On sam opowiada się za wizją Europy jako wyrazistej alternatywy dla amerykańskiej wersji globalizacji. Pisze: "Trzeci Świat nie potrafi stawić dostatecznie silnego oporu wobec ideologii amerykańskiego snu; w obecnej konstelacji dokonać tego może tylko Europa. Dlatego prawdziwą opozycją nie jest dziś przeciwstawienie pierwszego i Trzeciego Świata, lecz konflikt między całym światem pierwszym (...) i trzecim a światem drugim ". (shrink)
Het is een illusie te denken dat wij in vrijheid leven: onze ogenschijnlijke keuzevrijheid is juist een vorm van onvrijheid. Doordat wij toegang tot te veel kennis hebben, voelen we ons gedwongen ons over te leveren aan experts en vertegenwoordigers. De populistische reactie hierop is er een van onvrede die, zo laat SlavojŽižek zien, tot paradoxale opvattingen en situaties leidt.
SlavojŽižek, recenzując oscarowego wielkiego przegranego "Tajemnicę Brokeback Mountain", zauważa, że jest to film "prawdziwie eskapistyczny", abstrahujący od współczesnego kontekstu i skupiający się na dawno już rozwiązanych problemach. Przy okazji - kierując się psychoanalitycznymi intuicjami - zwraca uwagę, w jak istotnym stopniu propagowany dziś oficjalnie przez administrację Busha etos chrześcijańskiego wojownika opiera się na wypartych treściach homoerotycznych.
Naiwni wielbiciele internetowej nieskrępowanej komunikacji zapominają, jak wiele napięć i potencjalnych niebezpieczeństw kryje ona w sobie - twierdzi SlavojŽižek. Siedząc przed ekranem komputera, mogę dawać upust rzeczywistym pragnieniom, będąc jednocześnie niewidocznym, ukrytym za maską. Ten rozdźwięk między rzeczywistością a pozorem, traktowany jako czysta zabawa, może w istocie prowadzić do całkiem realnej przemocy i zbrodni.
Z punktu widzenia społecznej moralności bardziej szkodliwe jest nie samo stosowanie tortur, lecz próba publicznego uzasadnienia ich stosowania - twierdzi SlavojŽižek. Przyznanie się władz amerykańskich do używania tortur oraz dyskusja nad tym, czy włączyć tortury do repertuaru legalnych środków wymuszania zeznań, oznaczają, że podajemy w wątpliwość coś, co dotąd było nienaruszalną zasadą i cofamy się mentalnie o kilka stuleci. "Największymi ofiarami publicznego przyznania się przez państwo do stosowania tortur jesteśmy my wszyscy, społeczeństwo, które zostało o tym poinformowane. (...) Większość z nas nadal będzie przeciwna torturom, ale wszyscy mamy świadomość, że jakiś cenny element naszej zbiorowej tożsamości został bezpowrotnie utracony. Na naszych oczach następuje proces demoralizacji: władza próbuje złamać nam etyczny kręgosłup, osłabić i zniszczyć to, co jest być może największym osiągnięciem cywilizacji - wzrost wrażliwości moralnej". (shrink)
SlavojŽižek analizuje modny gatunek pisarstwa, który polega na spekulacjach dotyczących alternatywnych wersji historii. Žižek ubolewa, że gatunek ten został zawłaszczony przez autorów o poglądach konserwatywnych i najczęściej służy do ukazywania czytelnikom spustoszeń, jakich dokonały rozmaite rewolucje. W rzeczywistości - na przekór obiegowemu poglądowi łączącemu marksizm z hasłem "dziejowej konieczności" - koncepcja "alternatywnej wersji historii" jest fundamentem niektórych nurtów myśli lewicowej. Žižek przekonuje, że u wybitnych myślicieli związanych z marksizmem, takich jak Walter Benjamin, temporalny schemat ludzkiej (...) egzystencji przypomina schemat przedstawiony przez Zygmunta Freuda. W akcie rewolucyjnym ludzkość niejako wstecznie przepisuje własną historię, lecząc nękające ją "symptomy", czyli niewykorzystane rewolucyjne szanse z przeszłości. (shrink)
Na czym polega zło zawarte w komunizmie? Jaka jest natura komunistycznego zniewolenia? Próbując odpowiedzieć na te pytania, SlavojŽižek przygląda się dwóm nakręconym niedawno filmom pokazującym działanie komunistycznego systemu w NRD: "Życiu na podsłuchu" oraz "Good bye Lenin!". Żaden z nich nie opisuje zdaniem Žižka adekwatnie tego, na czym polega istota komunizmu. Pierwszy film przedstawia obraz nazbyt łagodny i wyidealizowany - widz może po jego obejrzeniu zadawać sobie pytanie, czy system pozwalający bohaterom na działania, które podejmują , "rzeczywiście (...) był aż tak straszny"? Z drugiej strony "Good bye Lenin!", choć adekwatnie sygnalizuje traumatyczną rzeczywistość systemu, grzęźnie jednak na mieliźnie, którą stanowi utożsamienie komunizmu z iluzją i fantazją. (shrink)
SlavojŽižek zastanawia się nad dzisiejszą kondycją ludzkości. Jego zdaniem mieszkańcy Zachodu przypominają Nietzscheańskich "ostatnich ludzi" - apatycznych, wyzutych z wszelkich autentycznych namiętności i pogrążających się w jałowym hedonizmie. Zachód ma obsesję na punkcie inności, którą jednak jest w stanie zaakceptować tylko pod warunkiem, że upodobni się ona jak najbardziej do niego samego. Frazesom o tolerancji towarzyszy zaostrzanie polityki imigracyjnej, a hasłom "otwartości na innego" - paniczny strach przed wybuchem prawdziwych namiętności. "Innego można tolerować, dopóki jego obecność nie (...) jest nachalna, dopóki inny nie jest naprawdę inny. Tolerancja współwystępuje ze swoim przeciwieństwem: mój obowiązek bycia tolerancyjnym wobec innego w praktyce oznacza, że nie powinienem się do niego za bardzo zbliżać, ingerować w jego przestrzeń". (shrink)
Tym, czego Europa potrzebuje dzisiaj najbardziej, jest chronienie rozsądnego liberalnego ateizmu przed zakusami "obrońców wiary" - twierdzi SlavojŽižek. Ta ochrona staje się szczególnie istotna w obliczu masowego napływu islamskich imigrantów do państw Unii. Tylko ateizm pozwoli wypracować neutralne ramy, w których będzie możliwe współistnienie różnych religii. Ich wyznawcy - w tym także muzułmanie - muszą jednak przygotować się na to, że będą poddawani "pełnej szacunku, ale nie mniej bezwzględnej" krytyce.
SlavojŽižek ponawia ważne, choć rzadko stawiane pytanie: czy ogłoszona przez prezydenta Busha wojna z terrorem nie zagraża naszej wolności, czy ze strachu przed nowymi zamachami nie zgodzimy się na pełny nadzór ze strony władz? Słoweński filozof przypomina postać niedawno zmarłego Alfreda Stroessnera, którego autorytarny reżim w Paragwaju lat 60. i 70. "doprowadził logikę stanu wyjątkowego do nieprześcignionej absurdalnej skrajności. Jeśli chodziło o zapisany w konstytucji ustrój, Paragwaj był demokracją parlamentarną gwarantującą wszystkie swobody. Ale ponieważ, jak twierdził Stroessner, (...) wszyscy żyliśmy w stanie wyjątkowym ze względu na ogólnoświatową walkę wolności z komunizmem, realizacja postanowień konstytucji była wiecznie odkładana i wprowadzono permanentny stan wyjątkowy". Žižek ostrzega, że "terror" jest dziś równie abstrakcyjnym - i równie wygodnym dla rządzących - hasłem co "komunizm" trzydzieści lat temu. (shrink)
The first volume of The Idea of Communism followed the 2009 London conference called in response to Alain Badiou’s ‘communist hypothesis’. This volume brings together papers from the subsequent 2011 New York conference organized by Verso and continues this critical discussion, highlighting the philosophical and political importance of the communist idea, in a world of financial and social turmoil. Contributors include Alain Badiou, Etienne Balibar, Bruno Bosteels, Susan Buck-Morss, Jodi Dean, Adrian Johnston, François Nicolas, Frank Ruda, Emmanuel Terray and (...) class='Hi'>SlavojŽižek. (shrink)
The concept of hope is central to the work of the German philosopher Ernst Bloch, especially in his magnum opus, _The Principle of Hope_. The "speculative materialism" that he first developed in the 1930s asserts a commitment to humanity's potential that continued through his later work. In _The Privatization of Hope_, leading thinkers in utopian studies explore the insights that Bloch's ideas provide in understanding the present. Mired in the excesses and disaffections of contemporary capitalist society, hope in the Blochian (...) sense has become atomized, desocialized, and privatized. From myriad perspectives, the contributors clearly delineate the renewed value of Bloch's theories in this age of hopelessness. Bringing Bloch's "ontology of Not Yet Being" into conversation with twenty-first-century concerns, this collection is intended to help revive and revitalize philosophy's commitment to the generative force of hope. _Contributors_. Roland Boer, Frances Daly, Henk de Berg, Vincent Geoghegan, Wayne Hudson, Ruth Levitas, David Miller, Catherine Moir, Caitríona Ní Dhúill, Welf Schröter, Johan Siebers, Peter Thompson, Francesca Vidal, Rainer Ernst Zimmermann, SlavojŽižek. (shrink)
The Cartesian cogito—the principle articulated by Descartes that "I think, therefore I am"—is often hailed as the precursor of modern science. At the same time, the cogito's agent, the ego, is sometimes feared as the agency of manipulative domination responsible for all present woes, from patriarchal oppression to ecological catastrophes. Without psychoanalyzing philosophy, _Cogito and the Unconscious_ explores the vicissitudes of the cogito and shows that psychoanalyses can render visible a constitutive madness within modern philosophy, the point at which "I (...) think, therefore I am" becomes obsessional neurosis characterized by "If I stop thinking, I will cease to exist." Noting that for Lacan the Cartesian construct is the same as the Freudian "subject of the unconscious," the contributors follow Lacan's plea for a psychoanalytic return to the cogito. Along the path of this return, they examine the ethical attitude that befits modern subjectivity, the inherent sexualization of modern subjectivity, the impasse in which the Cartesian project becomes involved given the enigmatic status of the human body, and the Cartesian subject's confrontation with its modern critics, including Althusser, Bataille, and Dennett. In a style that has become familiar to Žižek's readers, these essays bring together a strict conceptual analysis and an approach to a wide range of cultural and ideological phenomena—from the sadist paradoxes of Kant's moral philosophy to the universe of Ayn Rand's novels, from the question "Which, if any, is the sex of the cogito?" to the defense of the cogito against the onslaught of cognitive sciences. Challenging us to reconsider fundamental notions of human consciousness and modern subjectivity, this is a book whose very Lacanian orthodoxy makes it irreverently transgressive of predominant theoretical paradigms. _Cogito and the Unconscious_ will appeal to readers interested in philosophy, psychoanalysis, cultural studies, and theories of ideology. _Contributors. _Miran Bozovic, Mladen Dolar, Alain Grosrichard, Marc de Kessel, Robert Pfaller, Renata Salecl, SlavojŽižek, Alenka Zupancic. (shrink)
Hoe kunnen we nog geloven en regels hebben in dit postmoderne tijdperk waarin naar verluidt niets is om in te geloven en geen regels zijn. De beroemde filosoof en onstuitbaar cultuurcriticus Slavoj Zizek daagt iedereen uit in dit overtuigende en adembenemende nieuwe boek. In Geloof , dat van 'cyberspace-denken' tot de paradox van het 'westerse boeddhisme' gaat, legt Zizek de vooronderstellingen bloot achter de manier waarop we gewoonlijk over geloof denken, met name in judaïsme en christendom. Door de zogenaamde (...) authenticiteit van het religieuze geloof tegen een kritisch licht te houden en te putten uit psychoanalyse, film en filosofie, laat hij op schokkende wijze zien dat de basis van onze fundamenteelste overtuigingen minder rotsvast is dan wij denken. (shrink)
In _Civilization and Its Discontents_, Freud made abundantly clear what he thought about the biblical injunction, first articulated in Leviticus 19:18 and then elaborated in Christian teachings, to love one's neighbor as oneself. “Let us adopt a naive attitude towards it,” he proposed, “as though we were hearing it for the first time; we shall be unable then to suppress a feeling of surprise and bewilderment.” After the horrors of World War II, the Holocaust, and Stalinism, Leviticus 19:18 seems even (...) less conceivable—but all the more urgent now—than Freud imagined. In _The Neighbor_, three of the most significant intellectuals working in psychoanalysis and critical theory collaborate to show how this problem of neighbor-love opens questions that are fundamental to ethical inquiry and that suggest a new theological configuration of political theory. Their three extended essays explore today's central historical problem: the persistence of the theological in the political. In “Toward a Political Theology of the Neighbor,” Kenneth Reinhard supplements Carl Schmitt’s political theology of the enemy and friend with a political theology of the neighbor based in psychoanalysis. In “Miracles Happen,” Eric L. Santner extends the book's exploration of neighbor-love through a bracing reassessment of Benjamin and Rosenzweig. And in an impassioned plea for ethical violence, SlavojŽižek’s “Neighbors and Other Monsters” reconsiders the idea of excess to rehabilitate a positive sense of the inhuman and challenge the influence of Levinas on contemporary ethical thought. A rich and suggestive account of the interplay between love and hate, self and other, personal and political, _The Neighbor_ has proven to be a touchstone across the humanities and a crucial text for understanding the persistence of political theology in secular modernity. This new edition contains a new preface by the authors. (shrink)
In Less Than Nothing, the pinnacle publication of a distinguished career, Slavoj i ek argues that it is imperative that we not simply return to Hegel but that we repeat and exceed his triumphs, overcoming his limitations by being even more ...
With his characteristic wit, Zizek addresses the burning question of how to reformulate a leftist project in an era of global capitalism and liberal-democratic ...
In Ireland, HSE issued guidelines about practicing sex in the time of coronavirus, and the two key recommendations are: “Taking a break from physical and face-to face interactions is worth considering, especially if you usually meet your sex partners online or make a living by having sex. Consider using video dates, sexting or chat rooms. Make sure to disinfect keyboards and touch screens that you share with others. / Masturbation will not spread coronavirus, especially if you wash your hands with (...) soap and water for at least 20 seconds before and after. (shrink)
On various occasions when writing previously I’ve recounted a joke about a man who believes himself to be a grain of seed and is taken to a mental institution where the doctors do their best to convince him that he is not a seed but a human being. When they eventually succeed, he is allowed to leave the hospital. But he then returns immediately, trembling with fear. He reports that there is a chicken outside the entrance and he is terrified (...) that it will eat him. “Dear fellow,” says his doctor, “you know very well that you are not a seed but a man.” “Of course, I know that,” replies the patient, “but does the chicken know it?” My Croat friend Dejan Kršić recently sent me a corona-version of this joke: “Hello, my friend!” “O, hello, professor! Why are you wearing a mask? Two weeks ago you were explaining all around that masks don’t protect against the virus?” “Yes, I know they don’t work, but does the virus know it?”. (shrink)
Fredric Jameson is best known for applying to social and cultural life the motto: historicize every phenomenon, locate it in its concrete historical totality. What I want to do in this brief reflection is to elaborate a properly dialectical reading of this motto, a reading which recognizes abstraction itself as a concrete historical power. What Marxism calls.
In a critical reading of my plenary talk at the Law and Critique Conference in 2007, Sara Ahmed challenges my claim that it is an “empirical fact” that liberal multiculturalism is hegemonic. Her first step is to emphasize the distinction between the semblance of hegemony and actual hegemony: Hegemony is not really reducible to facts as it involves semblance, fantasy and illusion, being a question of how things appear and the gap between appearance and how bodies are distributed. To read (...) hegemony we have to distrust how things appear. Indeed, what is striking about Zizek’s retort is how much his reading of ‘political correctness’ and ‘liberal multiculturalism’ involved a certain literalism, as if the prohibition of speech acts that are not based on respecting the other’s difference are ‘really’ what is prohibited, or as if the prohibition is simply real by virtue of being articulated within public culture. So the speech act, ‘we must support the other’s difference’ is read as hegemonic, is taken literally as a sign not only that it is compulsory to support the other’s difference, but we are not allowed to refuse this support. The speech act is read as doing what it says. In order to re-consider the effects of such injunctions and prohibitions, I have introduced a new class of what I call non-performatives: speech acts that do not do what they say, that do not bring into effect that which they name. Could the speech work to create an illusion that we do support the other’s difference, which might work by not bringing such support into existence? (shrink)
