The philosopher who invented the word ‘idiosyncratic’, interview with Anja Steinbauer

Anja Steinbauer: So Professor Žižek – Slavoj Žižek: Don’t call me professor if you don’t want me to kill you. I feel so uneasy when someone calls me professor. Where is the professor? I have a deep problem with any official titles and so on. I’m not proud of it. When someone calls me professor I take it… Continue reading The philosopher who invented the word ‘idiosyncratic’, interview with Anja Steinbauer

Is Lacan An Anti-Philosopher? (2/3 – Slavoj Žižek) + transcript

[Transcript by Thomas Matthews below video.] Difficult to follow, I hope you hear me, glad to be here, glad to be with Alain. Of course in this 20 minute form it’s just a little bit too little time to really develop a line of thought- all one can do is more trace, define positions, oppositions,… Continue reading Is Lacan An Anti-Philosopher? (2/3 – Slavoj Žižek) + transcript

Zizek! (transcript/subtitles)

Zizek! (transcript/subtitles)

What would be my… how should I call it, spontaneous attitude towards the universe? It’s a very dark one. The first thesis would have been a kind of total vanity: there is nothing, basically. I mean it quite literally, like… ultimately…there are just some fragments, some vanishing things. If you look at the universe, it’s… Continue reading Zizek! (transcript/subtitles)

Slavoj Zizek: Am I a Philosopher?

International Zizek Studies Conference

[Delivered at International Žižek Studies Conference on May 27th 2016. Download .pdf] In his perspicuous review of the volume [amazon asin=0822358913&text=Repeating Žižek], dedicated to my work, Jamil Khader notes how some contributors interrogate “Žižek’s credentials as a philosopher, especially in relation to Badiou’s critique of Lacan’s anti-philosophical position. Hamza points out, in fact, that philosophers who… Continue reading Slavoj Zizek: Am I a Philosopher?

The Sublime Object of Ideology (Preface)

The Sublime Object of Ideology

The Idea’s Constipation? When a discipline is in crisis, attempts are made to change or supplement its theses within the terms of its basic framework – a procedure one might call ‘Ptolemization’ (since when data poured in which clashed with Ptolemy’s earth-centred astronomy, his partisans introduced additional complications to account for the anomalies). But the… Continue reading The Sublime Object of Ideology (Preface)

I watch therefore I am: seven movies that teach us key philosophy lessons

I watch therefore I am: seven movies that teach us key philosophy lessons

Is the quest for good a road to evil? Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter … and Spring Kim Ki-duk’s [amazon asin=B00HMKA9JS&text=Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter … and Spring] begins with a wise Buddhist monk and a small, innocent boy, his pupil. A few years later, a young woman arrives to be healed, and chaos is unleashed: the woman and… Continue reading I watch therefore I am: seven movies that teach us key philosophy lessons

Hegel versus Heidegger

Hegel versus Heidegger

One of the standard critiques of Hegel, first formulated already by the “young Hegelians,” concerns the apparent contradiction between Hegel’s dialectical method and his system. While Hegel’s method approaches reality in its dynamic development, discerning in every determinate form the seeds of its own destruction and self-overcoming, his system endeavors to render the totality of… Continue reading Hegel versus Heidegger

Best of 2011: Only Communism can save liberal democracy

Best of 2011: Only Communism can save liberal democracy

1989 marked not only the defeat of the Communist State-Socialism, but also the defeat of the Western Social Democracy. Nowhere is the misery of today’s Left more palpable than in its “principled” defence of the Social-Democratic Welfare State: the idea is that, in the absence of a feasible radical Leftist project, all that the Left… Continue reading Best of 2011: Only Communism can save liberal democracy

Slavoj Zizek: the world’s hippest philosopher, Interview with Helen Brown

Flapping his elbows and lathered in sweat, Slavoj Žižek looks like a man in the final throes of radiation sickness doing the birdy dance. But the world’s hippest philosopher is actually miming what he imagines it would feel like to be trapped inside an all-body condom. “I saw this thing in an American store!” he… Continue reading Slavoj Zizek: the world’s hippest philosopher, Interview with Helen Brown