Books by Slavoj Zizek

Book SynopsisWhat does progress' mean? Can things get better? And how, when we are constantly battered on all sides by deepfakes, doomers and disorienting relativisms, can we make any headway at all in the face of unprecedented ecological, social and political crises? In this collection of iconoclastic essays, Slavoj Žižek disrupts the death-grip that neoliberalists, Trumpian populists, toxic self-improvement industries and accelerationists alike have established on the idea of progress. In a whirlwind tour that takes in everything from gentrification to the theory of relativity, Lacan to Lenin, Putin to Mary Poppins and Kierkegaard to the end of the world, these essays never stop asking hard questions of imagined futures. Nor does Žižek shrink from the hardest question of all: How do we free ourselves from the hypocritical, guilt-ridden dreaming in which we're enmeshed, and begin to build a better world?

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Book SynopsisIf we want to be true atheists, do we have to begin with a religious edifice and undermine it from within?Slavoj Žižek has long been a commentator on, and critic of, Christian theology. His preoccupation with Badiou''s concept of ''the event'' alongside the Pauline thought of the New Testament has led to a decidedly theological turn in his thinking. Drawing on traditions and subjects as broad as Buddhist thought, dialectical materialism, political subjectivity, quantum physics, AI and chatbots, this book articulates Žižek''s idea of a religious life for the first time. Christian Atheism is a unique insight into Žižek''s theological project and the first book-length exploration of his religious thinking. In his own words, to become a true dialectical materialist, one should go through the Christian experience. Crucial to his whole conception of ''experience'' is not some kind of spiritual revelation but rather the logic of materialistic thought. This af

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Book Synopsis'The only thing of which one can be guilty is of having given ground relative to one's desire' Jacques Lacan. Is psychoanalysis dead or are we to read frequent attacks on its theoretical 'mistakes' and clinical 'frauds' as a proof of its vitality? Slavoj Zizek's passionate defence of Lacan reasserts the ethical urgency of psychoanalysis. Traditionally, psychoanalysis was expected to allow the patient to overcome the obstacles which prevented access to 'normal' sexual enjoyment. Today, however, we are bombarded from all sides by different versions of the injunction 'Enjoy!' Lacan reminds us that psychoanalysis is the only discourse in which you are allowed not to enjoy. Since for Lacan psychoanalysis itself is a procedure of reading, each chapter uses a passage from Lacan as a tool to interpret another text from philosophy, art or popular ideology, applying his ideas to Hegel and Hitchcock, Shakespeare and Dostoevsky.Trade ReviewZizek's books [are so] erudite and witty [that] they're quite moreish. The range and scope of his analogies are tremendous -- Mark Wallinger, artist * On My Radar, Observer *

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Book SynopsisWe are all afraid that new dangers pose a threat to our hard-won freedoms, so what deserves attention is precisely the notion of freedom.The concept of freedom is deceptively simple. We think we understand it, but the moment we try and define it we encounter contradictions. In this new philosophical exploration, Slavoj Žižek argues that the experience of true, radical freedom is transient and fragile. Countering the idea of libertarian individualism, Žižek draws on philosophers Hegel, Kierkegaard and Heidegger, as well as the work of Kandinsky and Agatha Christie to examine the many facets of freedom and what we can learn from each of them.Today, with the latest advances in digital control, our social activity can be controlled and regulated to such a degree that the liberal notion of a free individual becomes obsolete and even meaningless. How will we be obliged to reinvent (or limit) the contours of our freedom?Tracing its connection to everything frTable of ContentsPreface Acknowledgements Introduction: Move your Buridan's Ass! Part I: Freedom As Such Chapter 1: Freedom and its Discontents i) Freedom versus Liberty ii) Regulating Violations iii) Freedom, Knowledge, Necessity iv) Freedom to say NO Chapter 2: Is There Such a Thing as Freedom of the Will? i) Determinism and its Ragaries ii) Rewriting the Past iii) Beyond the Transcendental iv) Pascalean Wager Chapter 3: Indivisible Remainder and the Death of Death i) The Standpoint of the Absolute ii) The Death of God iii) Suicide as a Political Act iv)The Failed Negation of Negation Appendices I 1 Potestas versus Superdeterminism 2 Sublation as Dislocation 3 Inventing Anna, Inventing Madeleine 4 The Political Implications of Non-Representational Art Part II: Human Freedom Chapter 4: Marx Invented not Only Symptom but Also Drive i) Instead of... ii) Progress and Apathy iii) Dialectical Materialism iv) Yes, but... v) How Marx Invented Drive Chapter 5: The Path to Anarcho-Feudalism i) The Blue Pill Called Metaverse ii) From Cultural Capitalism to Crypto-Currencies iii) Savage Verticality Versus Uncontrollable Horizontality Chapter 6: The State and Counter-Revolution i) When the Social Link Disintegrates ii) The Limit of the Spontaneous Order iii) The State is Here to Stay iv) Do not give up on your Communist Desire! Appendices II 5 “Generalized Foreclosure”? No, Thanks! 6 Shamelessly Ashamed 7 A Muddle Instead of a Movie 8 How to Love a Homeland in our Global Era Finale: The Four Riders of the Apocalypse i) De-Nazifying… Ukraine, Kosovo, Europe ii) The End of Nature iii) DON’T Be True to Yourself! iv) Whose Servant Is a Master?

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Book SynopsisContemporary life is defined by excess. There must always be more, there is never enough. We need a surplus to what we need to be able to truly enjoy what we have. Slavoj Žižek's guide to surplus (and why it's enjoyable) begins by arguing that what is surplus to our needs is by its very nature unsubstantial and unnecessary. But, perversely, without this surplus, we wouldn't be able to enjoy what is substantial and necessary. Indeed, without the surplus we wouldn't be able to identify what was the perfect amount. Is there any escape from the vicious cycle of surplus enjoyment or are we forever doomed to simply want more? Engaging with everything from The Joker film to pop songs and Thomas Aquinas to the history of pandemics, Žižek argues that recognising the society of enjoyment we live in for what it is can provide an explanation for the political impasses in which we find ourselves today. And if we begin, even a little bit, to recognise that the nuggets of enjTrade Review[Žižek] could never be as dull a writer. He is a great caller of things stupid, which is a skill too little practised in a world dedicated to avoiding offence. But he also has genuine enthusiasms that constantly surprise the reader, such as a brilliant few pages on Shostakovich and, later, on the film Joker … Žižek is at heart really a close reader and a seriously inventive one. * The Spectator *Surplus-Enjoyment is the author at his most supple, addressing urgent current concerns and the need for a global solidarity that cannot be divorced from egalitarianism. ... Zizek is a pick-me-up for fatigued brains, a true radical and an authentic left-wing conservative who wants to prevent the social disintegration that threatens our civic life. * The Prisma: The Multicultural Newspaper *Table of ContentsOuverture: Living In A Topsy-Turvy World 1. Where Is The Rift? Marx, Capitalism, And Ecology 2. A Non-binary Difference? Psychoanalysis, Politics, And Philosophy 3. Surplus-Enjoyment, Or, Why Do We Enjoy Our Oppression Finale: Subjective Destitution As A Political Category Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisIn the most rigorous articulation of his philosophical system to date, Slavoj Žižek provides nothing short of a new definition of dialectical materialism.In forging this new materialism, Žižek critiques and challenges not only the work of Alain Badiou, Robert Brandom, Joan Copjec, Quentin Meillassoux, and Julia Kristeva (to name but a few), but everything from popular science and quantum mechanics to sexual difference and analytic philosophy. Alongside striking images of the Möbius strip, the cross-cap, and the Klein bottle, Žižek brings alive the Hegelian triad of being-essence-notion. Radical new readings of Hegel, and Kant, sit side by side with characteristically lively commentaries on film, politics, and culture.Here is Žižek at his interrogative best.Trade Review[This] is certainly the best organized and clearly structured of the author's “big” books … Žižek's writing style is much clearer (relatively speaking) than it was in earlier works and thus reflects the fact that many careless readers have (mis)read him simplistically … Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty. * CHOICE *Few thinkers illustrate the contradictions of contemporary capitalism better than Slavoj Žižek. * John Gray, New York Review of Books *Like Socrates on steroids ... breathtakingly perceptive. The most formidably brilliant exponent of psychoanalysis, indeed of cultural theory in general, to have emerged in many decades * Terry Eagleton *The excitable fluency, ursine congeniality and gleeful readiness to provoke and offend all feed the sense of authentic sponanaeity and energy that has made Žižek somethig like European philosophy’s punk icon, packing out auditoriums around the world. * Josh Cohen, New Statesman *A gifted speaker—tumultuous, emphatic, direct—he writes as he speaks. * Jonathan Rée, Guardian *The most dangerous philosopher in the West * Adam Kirsch, New Republic *Žižek leaves no social or cultural phenomenon untheorized, and is master of the counterintuitive observation * New Yorker *A penetrating new study that redefines a term that most would be wary of returning to: dialectical materialism. What the feeling of déjà vu in reading Sex and the Failed Absolute does come from is the re-experiencing of the excitement that characterised reading his first book back in 1989. * Scottish Left Review *a relentless iconoclast, a restless wordsmith, an inventive thinker with a hatred of received wisdom, an underminer of conventionally acknowledged truths. * Bookforum *Sex and the Failed Absolute is to Žižek’s corpus what Malevich’s Black Square was to his artistic oeuvre. In this watershed book, interweaving the odd couple of quantum physics and sexuality, Žižek offers readers the distilled essence of a new dialectical materialism. This reinvents the very foundations of Žižekian ontology * Adrian Johnston, Professor and Chair of Philosophy, University of New Mexico, U.S.A *Table of ContentsINTRODUCTION: THE UNORIENTABLE SURFACE OF DIALECTICAL MATERIALISM THEOREM I: THE PARALLAX OF ONTOLOGY Modalities of the Absolute—Reality and Its Transcendental Supplement – Varieties of the Transcendental in Western Marxism - The Margin of Radical Uncertainty COROLLARY 1: INTELLECTUAL INTUITION AND INTELLECTUS ARCHETYPUS: REFLEXIVITY IN KANT AND HEGEL Intellectual Intuition from Kant to Hegel—From Intellectus Ectypus to Intellectus Archetypus SCHOLIUM 1.1: BUDDHA, KANT, HUSSERL SCHOLIUM 1.2: HEGEL’S PARALLAX SCHOLIUM 1.3: THE “DEATH OF TRUTH” THEOREM II: SEX AS OUR BRUSH WITH THE ABSOLUTE Antinomies of Pure Sexuation—Sexual Parallax and Knowledge—The Sexed Subject - Plants, Animals, Humans, Posthumans COROLLARY 2: SINUOSITIES OF SEXUALIZED TIME Days of the Living Dead – Cracks in Circular Time SCHOLIUM 2.1: SCHEMATISM IN KANT, HEGEL… AND SEX SCHOLIUM 2.2: MARX, BRECHT, AND SEXUAL CONTRACTS SCHOLIUM 2.3: THE HEGELIAN REPETITION SCHOLIUM 2.4: SEVEN DEADLY SINS THEOREM III: THE THREE UNORIENTABLES Möbius Strip, or, the Convolutions of Concrete Universality—The “Inner Eight”—(((Suture Redoubled)))—Cross-Capping Class Struggle—From Cross-Cap to Klein Bottle—A Snout in Plato’s Cave COROLLARY 3: THE RETARDED GOD OF QUANTUM ONTOLOGY The Implications of Quantum Gravity—The Two Vacuums: From Less than Nothing to Nothing – Is the Collapse of a Quantum Wave Like a Throw of Dice? SCHOLIUM 3.1: THE ETHICAL MOEBIUS STRIP SCHOLIUM 3.2: THE DARK TOWER OF SUTURE SCHOLIUM 3.3: SUTURE AND HEGEMONY SCHOLIUM 3.4: THE WORLD WITH(OUT) A SNOUT SCHOLIUM 3.5: TOWARDS A QUANTUM PLATONISM THEOREM IV: THE PERSISTENCE OF ABSTRACTION Madness, Sex, War— How to Do Words with Things—The Inhuman View – The All-Too-Close In-Itself COROLLARY 4: IBI RHODUS IBI SALTUS! The Protestant Freedom—Jumping Here and Jumping There—Four Ethical Gestures SCHOLIUM 4.1: LANGUAGE, LALANGUE SCHOLIUM 4.2 - PROKOFIEV’S TRAVELS SCHOLIUM 4.3: BECKETT AS THE WRITER OF ABSTRACTION

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Book SynopsisSlavoj Žižek is a Hegelian philosopher, a Lacanian psychoanalyst, and a Communist. He is International Director at the Birkbeck Institute for Humanities, University of London, UK, Visiting Professor at the New York University, USA, and Senior Researcher at the Department of Philosophy, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.

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Book SynopsisZizek argues that the physical violence we see is often generated by the systemic violence that sustains our political and economic systems. With the help of eminent philosophers like Marx, Engel and Lacan, as well as frequent references to popular culture, he examines the real causes of violent outbreaks like those seen in Israel and Palestine and in terrorist acts around the world. Ultimately, he warns, doing nothing is often the most violent course of action we can take.Trade ReviewSince the deaths of Jacques Derrida in 2004 and Jean Baudrillard in 2007 ... Zizek has quickly cemented his position as the world's prominent philosopher and cultural theorist. -- Matthew Taunton * New Statesman *Zizek is ... the most formidably brilliant exponent of psychoanalysis, indeed of cultural theory in general, to have emerged in Europe for some decades -- Terry EagletonAn essay by the "Elvis of cultural theory" is wisely chosen to launch a handsome new series on "Big Ideas". Violence is nothing if not an exciting read; provocative ideas abound on every page. -- Mark Vernon * The Philosophy Magazine *writes with an engaging eloquence that is appealing to the reader, despite the highbrow nature of the work...Zizek displays an originality here which shows why he is one of the more respected philosophers in the western world. A worthwhile and thought-provoking read. * Sunday Business Post *

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Book SynopsisŽižek as comedian: jokes in the service of philosophy.“A serious and good philosophical work could be written consisting entirely of jokes.”—Ludwig WittgensteinThe good news is that this book offers an entertaining but enlightening compilation of Žižekisms. Unlike any other book by Slavoj Žižek, this compact arrangement of jokes culled from his writings provides an index to certain philosophical, political, and sexual themes that preoccupy him. Žižek's Jokes contains the set-ups and punch lines—as well as the offenses and insults—that Žižek is famous for, all in less than 200 pages.So what's the bad news? There is no bad news. There's just the inimitable Slavoj Žižek, disguised as an impossibly erudite, politically incorrect uncle, beginning a sentence, “There is an old Jewish joke, loved by Derrida...“ For Žižek, jokes are amusing stories that

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Book SynopsisSlavoj Zizek, the maverick philosopher, author of over 30 books, acclaimed as the "Elvis of cultural theory", and today's most controversial public intellectual. His work traverses the fields of philosophy, psychoanalysis, theology, history and political theory, taking in film, popular culture, literature and jokes-all to provide acute analyses of the complexities of contemporary ideology as well as a serious and sophisticated philosophy. His recent films The Pervert's Guide to the Cinema and Zizek! reveal a theorist at the peak of his powers and a skilled communicator. Now Verso is making his classic titles, each of which stand as a core of his ever-expanding life's work, available as new editions. Each is beautifully re-packaged, including new introductions from Zizek himself. Simply put, they are the essential texts for understanding Zizek's thought and thus cornerstones of contemporary philosophy.The Sublime Object of Ideology: Slavoj Zizek's first book is a provocative and original work looking at the question of human agency in a postmodern world. In a thrilling tour de force that made his name, he explores the ideological fantasies of wholeness and exclusion which make up human society.Trade ReviewThe Elvis of cultural theory. * Chronicle of Higher Education *The giant of Ljubljana provides the best intellectual high since Anti-Oedipus. * The Village Voice *The most formidably brilliant exponent of psychoanalysis, indeed of cultural theory in general, to have emerged in many decades. -- Terry EagletonUnafraid of confrontation and with a near limitless grasp of pop symbolism * The Times *Zizek is a thinker who regards nothing as outside his field: the result is deeply interesting and provocative. * Guardian *Zizek is one of the few living writers to combine theoretical rigor with compulsive readability. * Publishers Weekly *Zizek leaves no social or cultural phenomenon untheorized, and is master of the counterintuitive observation * New Yorker *

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Book SynopsisThe maverick philosopher returns to explore today''s idealogical, political and economic battles, and asks whether radical change is possibleIn these troubled times, even the most pessimistic diagnosis of our future ends with an uplifting hint that things might not be as bad as all that, that there is light at the end of the tunnel.Yet, argues Slavoj Žižek, it is only when we have admit to ourselves that our situation is completely hopeless - that the light at the end of the tunnel is in fact the headlight of a train approaching us from the opposite direction - that fundamental change can be brought about. Surveying the various challenges in the world today, from mass migration and geopolitical tensions to terrorism, the explosion of rightist populism and the emergence of new radical politics - all of which, in their own way, express the impasses of global capitalism - Žižek explores whether there still remains the possibility for genuine change. Today, he proposes, the only true question is,or should be, this: do we endorse the predominant acceptance of capitalism as fact of human nature, or does today''s capitalism contain strong enough antagonisms to prevent its infinite reproduction? Can we, he asks, move beyond the failure of socialism, and beyond the current wave of populist rage, and initiate radical change before the train hits? ''Žižek is a thinker who regards nothing as outside his field: the result is deeply interesting and provocative'' - Guardian ''Žižek leaves no social or cultural phenomenon untheorized, and is master of the counterintuitive observation'' -New YorkerTrade ReviewŽižek is a thinker who regards nothing as outside his field: the result is deeply interesting and provocative * Guardian *Žižek leaves no social or cultural phenomenon untheorized, and is master of the counterintuitive observation * New Yorker *

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Book SynopsisSlavoj Žižek gives us a reading of a philosophical giant that changes our way of thinking about the new posthuman era.No ordinary study of Hegel, this work investigates what he might have had to say about the idea of the ''wired brain'' what happens when a direct link between our mental processes and a digital machine emerges. Žižek explores the phenomenon of a wired brain effect, and what might happen when we can share our thoughts directly with others. He hones in on the key question of how it shapes our experience and status as ''free'' individuals and asks what it means to be human when a machine can read our minds.With characteristic verve and enjoyment of the unexpected, Žižek connects Hegel to the world we live in now, shows why he is much more fun than anyone gives him credit for, and why the 21st century might just be Hegelian.Trade ReviewHegel in a Wired Brain, mixes perspicacity and paradox in brain-teasing ways that have become his signature style but there is novelty too in this punchy addition to his oeuvre. * PopMatters *Table of ContentsIntroduction: “Un jour, peut-être, le siècle sera hégélien” 1. The Digital Police State: Fichte’s Revenge on Hegel 2. The Idea of a Wired Brain and its Limitation 3. The Impasse of Soviet Tech-Gnosis 4. Singularity: the Gnostic Turn 5. The Fall that Makes Us Like God 6. Reflexivity of the Unconscious 7. A Literary Fantasy: the Unnamable Subject of Singularity A Treatise on Digital Apocalypse Index

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Book SynopsisWe hear all the time that we''re moments from doomsday. Around us, crises interlock and escalate, threatening our collective survival: Russia''s invasion of Ukraine, with its rising risk of nuclear warfare, is taking place against a backdrop of global warming, ecological breakdown, and widespread social and economic unrest. Protestors and politicians repeatedly call for action, but still we continue to drift towards disaster. We need to do something. But what if the only way for us to prevent catastrophe is to assume that it has already happened-to accept that we''re already five minutes past zero hour?Too Late to Awaken sees Slavoj Žižek forge a vital new space for a radical emancipatory politics that could avert our course to self-destruction. He illuminates why the liberal Left has so far failed to offer this alternative, and exposes the insidious propagandism of the fascist Right, which has appropriated and manipulated once-progressive ideas. Pithy, urgent, guttin

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Book SynopsisIn our brave new world of Big Tech, work is automated and money melts into air. What comes next as the global capitalist edifice crumbles? Slavoj Žižek shows how the answer is already stealing into sight, like a thief in broad daylight. What we must do is wake up and see it. ''In a world determined to crush hope of radical change, where moral corruption poses as pragmatism and systemic oppression as the new freedom, Slavoj Žižek''s excellent new book serves humanity in a way that only authentic philosophy can'' Yanis Varoufakis''The Elvis of cultural theory'' New Statesman''Master of the counterintuitive observation'' New YorkerTrade ReviewŽižek is a thinker who regards nothing as outside his field: the result is deeply interesting and provocative * Guardian *Žižek leaves no social or cultural phenomenon untheorized, and is master of the counterintuitive observation * New Yorker *In a world determined to crush hope of radical change, where moral corruption poses as pragmatism and systemic oppression as the new freedom, Slavoj Zizek's excellent new book serves humanity in a way that only authentic philosophy can -- Yanis Varoufakis

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Book Synopsis* Slavoj Zizek is one of the world s most widely read and controversial philosophers and social critics.Trade Review"Zizek is, in fact, the most formidably brilliant exponent of psychoanalysis, indeed of cultural theory in general, to have emerged from Europe in several decades."—Terry Eagleton "Zizek is to today what Jacques Derrida was to the '80s: the thinker of choice for Europe's young intellectual vanguard."—The Observer "... an excellent introduction to both the breadth and depth of Zizek's ideas, made all the better to follow his arguments via an imaginative format of short thematic interviews."—The SubstantiveTable of ContentsAcknowledgements 1) Politics and Responsibility 2) Obsession for Harmony / Compulsion to Identify 3) Politicization of Ethics 4) Means Without End: Political Phronesis 5) “May you live in interesting times” 6) Communism The Ethico-political Fiasco 7) Who is Afraid of a Failed Revolution? 8) Another World is Possible 9) For They Know Not What They Do 10) Parallax View on Post-modern Globalization 11) The Public Use of the Scandal 12) The Screen of Politeness / Empty Gestures and Performatives 13) Deadlock of Totalitarian Communism 14) The Subversive Use of Theory 15) Becoming Proletarian Position 16) New Forms of Apartheid 17) Intrusion of the Excluded into the Socio-Political Space 18) Rage Capital and Risk-Taking Revolutionary Changes 19) Café Revolution 20) To Begin from the Beginning 21) The Fear of Real Love 22) Dialectic of Liberal Superiority 23) The Day After 24) The Universality of Political Miracles 25) Messianism, Multitude, and Wishful Thinking 26) Politicization of Favelas 27) Bolivarianism, the Populist Temptation 28) Violent Civil Disobedience 29) Legitimacy of Symbolic Violence 30) Gandhi, Aristide, and Divine Violence 31) No Moralization But Egotism 32) Possibility of Concrete Universality 33) Common Struggle for Freedom 34) The Impossible Happens

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Book SynopsisWhat 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, ZizeTrade Review"Zizek’s playful writing style presents the reader with apposite and amusing examples, from Franz Kafka to Jane Austen, which clarify and enliven his arguments. Zizek’s book bursts with reflection, observation, wit and raw iconoclastic conclusions. Zizek’s magnetic style and radical ideas are a welcome and inspiring breath of fresh air. It is possible that through revealing how we make sense of our past The Most Sublime Hysteric may help us to cultivate a better future." Morning Star "The Most Sublime Hysteric clearly outlines the logic at the basis of the thought of the most important philosopher of our time. With care and precision, Zizek conjoins Hegel and Lacan, building the components of his own unique and powerful philosophical system. This long-awaited translation of Zizek's doctoral dissertation provides a valuable new point of entry to his work, appropriate for experts and newcomers alike." Jodi Dean, Hobart and William Smith Colleges "Slavoj Zizek’s doctoral thesis on Hegel, Lacan, and the impasses of post-Hegelianism is as fresh today as it was in 1982. Written with his characteristic wit and exceptional lucidity, this book will clarify the foundational ideas of one of the greatest thinkers of our time." Kenneth Reinhard, University of California, Los Angeles "What a fascinating document it is." Irish Left ReviewTable of ContentsIntroduction: Impossible Absolute Knowledge 1 Book I: Hegel with Lacan 7 1. “The Formal Aspect”: Reason versus Understanding 9 2. The Retroactive Performative, or How the Necessary Emerges from the Contingent 21 3. The Dialectic as Logic of the Signifier (1): The One of Self-Reference 35 4. The Dialectic as Logic of the Signifier (2): The Real of the “Triad” 54 5. Das Ungeschehenmachen: How is Lacan a Hegelian? 70 6. The “Cunning of Reason,” or the True Nature of the Hegelian Teleology 83 7. “The Suprasensible is the Phenomenon as Phenomenon,” or How Hegel Goes Beyond the Kantian Thing-in-Itself 97 8. Two Hegelian Witz, Which Help Us Understand Why Absolute Knowledge Is Divisive 105 Book II: Post-Hegelian Impasses 125 9. The Secret of the Commodity Form: Why is Marx the Inventor of the Symptom? 127 10. Ideology Between the Dream and the Phantasy: A First Attempt at Defining “Totalitarianism” 146 11. Divine Psychosis, Political Psychosis: A Second Attempt at Defining “Totalitarianism” 156 12. Between Two Deaths: Third, and Final, Attempt at Defining “Totalitarianism” 175 13. The Quilting Point of Ideology: Or Why Lacan is Not a “Poststructuralist” 195 14. Naming and Contingency: Hegel and Analytic Philosophy 209 References 230 Index 236

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Book SynopsisThe first volume of The Idea of Communism followed the 2009 London conference called in response to Alain Badiou's 'communist hypothesis', where an all-star cast of radical intellectuals put the idea of communism back on the map.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 Slavoj Zizek.Trade ReviewDo not be afraid, join us, come back! You've had your anti-communist fun, and you are pardoned for it-time to get serious once again! -- Slavoj Zizek

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Book SynopsisAs an unprecedented global pandemic sweeps the planet, who better than the supercharged Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek to uncover its deeper meanings, marvel at its mind-boggling paradoxes and speculate on the profundity of its consequences? We live in a moment when the greatest act of love is to stay distant from the object of your affection. When governments renowned for ruthless cuts in public spending can suddenly conjure up trillions. When toilet paper becomes a commodity as precious as diamonds. And when, according to Žižek, a new form of communism – the outlines of which can already be seen in the very heartlands of neoliberalism – may be the only way of averting a descent into global barbarism. Written with his customary brio and love of analogies in popular culture (Quentin Tarantino and H. G. Wells sit next to Hegel and Marx), Žižek provides a concise and provocative snapshot of the crisis as it widens, engulfing us all.Trade Review“An impressive feat... [Žižek] at his most powerful.” The Guardian “Passages of beauty... a high-wire juxtaposition of far-left political theory and pop culture, held together by the force of [Žižek’s] rumpled charm.”BuzzFeed “Žižek leaves no social or cultural phenomenon untheorized, and is master of the counterintuitive observation.” The New Yorker “The most dangerous philosopher in the West.”Adam Kirsch, The New Republic “I don’t agree with those who claim that now is no time for politics... No! Now is a great time for politics, because the world in its current form is disappearing.”PANDEMIC! author Slavoj Žižek profiled in Haaretz "Stimulating" Times Higher Education"[T]his is not a rush job by a notably prolific author. The book is an achievement well worth respect and detailed attention."International Dialogue: A Multidisciplinary Journal of World AffairsTable of ContentsIntroduction: Noli Me Tangere 1 1. We're All in the Same Boat Now 5 2. Why Are We Tired All the Time? 17 3. Toawrds A Perfect Storm in Europe 29 4. Welcome to the Viral Desert 37 5. The Five Stage of Epidemics 47 6. The Virus of Ideology 53 7. Calm Down and Panic! 61 8. Monitor and Punish? Yes, Please! 71 9. Is Barbarism With a Human Dace Our Fate? 83 10. Communism or Barbarism, as Simple as That! 95 11. The Appointment in Samara: A New Use for Some Ild Jokes 107 Appendix: Two Helpful Letters from Friends 129

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Book SynopsisIn Trouble in Paradise, Slavoj Žižek, one of our most famous, most combative philosophers, explains how by drawing on the ideas of communism, we can find a way out of the crisis of capitalism.There is obviously trouble in the global capitalist paradise. But why do we find it so difficult to imagine a way out of the crisis we''re in? It is as if the trouble feeds on itself: the march of capitalism has become inexorable, the only game in town.Setting out to diagnose the condition of global capitalism, the ideological constraints we are faced with in our daily lives, and the bleak future promised by this system, Slavoj Žižek explores the possibilities - and the traps - of new emancipatory struggles. Drawing insights from phenomena as diverse as Gangnam Style to Marx, The Dark Knight to Thatcher, Trouble in Paradise is an incisive dissection of the world we inhabit, and the new order to come.''The most dangerous philosopher in the West'' - Adam Kirsch, New Republic ''The most formidably brilliant exponent of psychoanalysis, indeed of cultural theory in general, to have emerged in many decades'' - Terry Eagleton ''Žižek leaves no social or cultural phenomenon untheorized, and is master of the counterintuitive observation'' - New Yorker

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Book Synopsis''One of our best-known living philosophers'' GuardianHow do we respond to the refugee crisis - by opening our doors, or pulling up the drawbridge? Both solutions, argues Slavoj Žižek, offer ideological blackmail, and both are wrong. He proposes that instead we see the crisis as an opportunity: a unique chance for Europe to redefine itself and its future. ''Žižek identifies the refugee crisis as one of the major global challenges of our time ... he argues for a politics of solidarity'' The Times Literary Supplement

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Book SynopsisShows how the problem of neighbor love opens questions that are fundamental to ethical inquiry and suggest a new theological configuration of political theory. This title explores today's central historical problem: the persistence of the theological in the political.Trade Review"An important contribution to the development of new ways to think about sovereignty, otherness, materiality, and the political possibilities encased in the present.... Each essay unfolds through complex and nuanced engagements with key texts in political theology, psychoanalysis, ethics, and contemporary philosophy." (Political Theory)"

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Book SynopsisWith a new introduction by the authorIn this deliciously polemical work, a giant of cultural theory immerses himself in the ideas of a giant of French thought. In his inimical style, Zizek links Deleuze's work with both Oedipus and Hegel, figures from whom the French philosopher distanced himself. Zizek turns some Deleuzian concepts around in order to explore the 'organs without bodies' in such films as Fight Club and the works of Hitchcock. Finally, he attacks what he sees as the 'radical chic' Deleuzians, arguing that such projects turn Deleuze into an ideologist of today's 'digital capitalism'. With his brilliant energy and fearless argumentation, Zizek sets out to restore a truer, more radical Deleuze than the one we thought we knew. Trade Review"For those who thought they could by-pass Deleuze as well for the most passionate Deleuzians, Organs Without Bodies will be a major revelation. By placing Deleuze into proximity with his great antipodes--Hegel and Lacan--Zizek endows Deleuze's tireless elaboration of the processes of differentiation and becoming in all spheres of life with 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." -- Eric Santner, author of On the Psychotheology of Everday Life: Reflections on Freud and Rosenzweig"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." -- Joan Copjec, author of Imagine There's No Woman"Even Mr. Zizek's most devoted fans sometimes wonder if he would do them a favor by not writing a book this month. Anyone feeling guilty for not yet having read Organs Without Bodies: On Deleuize and Consequences , published by Routledge in December, may instead want to consult Mr. Zizek's essay on Gilles Deleuze (the philospher of "schizoanalysis) in the winter issue of Critical Inquiry." -- Chronicle of Higher Education"As a writer, Slavoj Zizek can translate difficult philosophical positions in a succinct way while maintaining its original force and insight....And so, Organs without Bodies is a provocative and important book for Deleuzians because it successfully opens a reading of Deleuze that is anti-conventional and moves against the current....What all this points to is how Zizek is an unconventional thinker with radical and originary insight. This makes Organs without Bodies a worthwhile and necessary read." --Robert Ramos, Metapsychology OnlineTable of ContentsIntroduction Deleuze The Reality of the Virtual Becoming versus History"Becoming-Machine" Un jour, peut-etre, le siecle sera empiriomoniste? Quasi Cause Is It Possible Not to Love Spinoza? Kant, Hegel Hegel 1: Taking Deleuze from Behind Hegel 2: From Epistemology to Ontology.and back Hegel 3: the Minimal Difference The Torsion of Meaning A Comic Hegelian Interlude: Dumb and Dumber The Becoming-Oedipal Deleuze Phallus Fantasy RIS Consequences 1. Science: Cognitivism with Freud "Autopoiesis" Memes, Memes Everywhere Against Hyphen-Ethics Cognitive Closure "Little Jolts of Enjoyment" 2. Art: The Talking Heads Kino-Eye Hitchcock as Anti-Plato The Cut of the Gaze When the Fantasy Falls Apart "I, the Truth, am Speaking" Beyond Morality 3. Politics: A Plea for Cultural Revolution A Yuppie Reading Deleuze Micro-Fascisms Netocracy Blows against the Empire On the Permanent Actuality for Revolutionary Cultural Politics of President Mao Ze Dong's Slogan "Long Live the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution" Index

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Book SynopsisThe title is just the first of many startling asides, observations and insights that fill this guide to Hollywood on the Lacanian psychoanalystâs couch. Zizek introduces the ideas of Jacques Lacan through the medium of American film, taking his examples from over 100 years of cinema, from Charlie Chaplin to The Matrix and referencing along the way such figures as Lenin and Hegel, Michel Foucault and Jesus Christ. Enjoy Your Symptom! is a thrilling guide to cinema and psychoanalysis from a thinker who is perhaps the last standing giant of cultural theory in the twenty-first century.Trade Review'The thrill of reading Zizek ... arises in part from the collision between the insanity he finds everywhere in our psychic and social lives and the rigorous clarity with which he anatomizes its workings.'- Lingua Franca'The thrill of reading Zizek... arises in part from the collision between the insanity he finds everywhere in our psychic and social lives and the rigorous clarity with which he anatomizes its workings.'- Lingua FrancaTable of ContentsIntroduction to the Revised Edition Introduction 1. Why Does a Letter Always Arrive at Its Destination? 1.1 Death and Sublimation: The Final Scene of City Lights 1.2 Imaginary, Symbolic, Real 2. Why Is Woman a Symptom of Man? 2.1 Why is Suicide the Only Successful Act? 2.2 The Night of the World 3. Why is Every Act a Repetition 3.1 Beyond Distributive Justice 3.2 Identity and Authority 4. Why Does the Phallus Appear? 4.1 Grimaces of the Real 4.2 Phallaphany of the Anal Father 5. Why Are There Always Two Fathers 5.1 At The Origins of Noir: The Humiliated Father 5.2 Die Versagung 6. Why is Reality Always Multiple? 6.1 Is There a Proper Way to Remake a Hitchcock Film? 6.2 The Matrix, Or, the Two Sides of Perversion Index

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Book SynopsisChallenges 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.Trade Review"This new Zizek is as stunning as its predecessors, and breaks new philosophical ground. Not only to Kant and Hegel illuminate Lacan (and vice versa), mass culture and politics illuminate all of them, along with a bonus in an astonishing excursus on opera."—Fredric Jameson“Slavoj Žižek, the Giant of Ljubljana, . . . provides the best intellectual high since Anti-Oedipus.” -- Scott Malcolmson * Voice Literary Supplement *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1 I. Cogito: The Void Called Subject 1. "I or He or It (the Thing) Which Thinks" 9 2. Cogito and the Sexual Difference 45 II. Ergo: The Dialectical Nonsequitur 3. On Radical Evil and Related Matters 83 4. Hegel's "Logic of Essence" as a Theory of Ideology 125 III. Sum: The Loop of Enjoyment 5. "The Wound is Healed Only by the Spear That Smote You" 165 6. Enjoy Your National As Yourself? 200 Notes 239 Index 287

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Book SynopsisChallenges 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.Trade Review"This new Zizek is as stunning as its predecessors, and breaks new philosophical ground. Not only to Kant and Hegel illuminate Lacan (and vice versa), mass culture and politics illuminate all of them, along with a bonus in an astonishing excursus on opera."—Fredric Jameson“Slavoj Žižek, the Giant of Ljubljana, . . . provides the best intellectual high since Anti-Oedipus.” -- Scott Malcolmson * Voice Literary Supplement *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1 I. Cogito: The Void Called Subject 1. "I or He or It (the Thing) Which Thinks" 9 2. Cogito and the Sexual Difference 45 II. Ergo: The Dialectical Nonsequitur 3. On Radical Evil and Related Matters 83 4. Hegel's "Logic of Essence" as a Theory of Ideology 125 III. Sum: The Loop of Enjoyment 5. "The Wound is Healed Only by the Spear That Smote You" 165 6. Enjoy Your National As Yourself? 200 Notes 239 Index 287

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Book SynopsisSlavoj Žižek gives us a reading of a philosophical giant that changes our way of thinking about our new posthuman era.No ordinary study of Hegel, Hegel in a Wired Brain investigates what he might have had to say about the idea of the ''wired brain'' what happens when a direct link between our mental processes and a digital machine emerges. Žižek explores the phenomenon of a wired brain effect, and what might happen when we can share our thoughts directly with others. He hones in on the key question of how it shapes our experience and status as ''free'' individuals and asks what it means to be human when a machine can read our minds.With characteristic verve and enjoyment of the unexpected, Žižek connects Hegel to the world we live in now, shows why he is much more fun than anyone gives him credit for, and why the 21st century might just be Hegelian.Trade ReviewHegel in a Wired Brain, mixes perspicacity and paradox in brain-teasing ways that have become his signature style but there is novelty too in this punchy addition to his oeuvre. * PopMatters *With characteristic verve and enjoyment of the unexpected, the author connects Hegel with the world we live in now, shows why he's so much funnier than what has been believed until now, and why the 21st century can be precisely Hegelian. * Diálogo Filosófico (Bloomsbury Translation) *Table of ContentsIntroduction: “Un jour, peut-être, le siècle sera hégélien” 1. The Digital Police State: Fichte’s Revenge on Hegel 2. The Idea of a Wired Brain and its Limitation 3. The Impasse of Soviet Tech-Gnosis 4. Singularity: the Gnostic Turn 5. The Fall that Makes Us Like God 6. Reflexivity of the Unconscious 7. A Literary Fantasy: the Unnamable Subject of Singularity A Treatise on Digital Apocalypse Index

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Book SynopsisContemporary life is defined by excess. There must always be more, there is never enough. We need a surplus to what we need to be able to truly enjoy what we have. Slavoj Žižek's guide to surplus (and why it's enjoyable) begins by arguing that what is surplus to our needs is by its very nature unsubstantial and unnecessary. But, perversely, without this surplus, we wouldn't be able to enjoy, what is substantial and necessary. Indeed, without the surplus we wouldn't be able to identify what was the perfect amount. Is there any escape from the vicious cycle of surplus enjoyment or are we forever doomed to simply want more? Engaging with everything from The Joker film to pop songs and Thomas Aquinas to the history of pandemics, Žižek argues that recognising the society of enjoyment we live in for what it is can provide an explanation for the political impasses in which we find ourselves today. And if we begin, even a little bit, to recognise that the nuggets of enTrade Review[Žižek] could never be as dull a writer. He is a great caller of things stupid, which is a skill too little practised in a world dedicated to avoiding offence. But he also has genuine enthusiasms that constantly surprise the reader, such as a brilliant few pages on Shostakovich and, later, on the film Joker … Žižek is at heart really a close reader and a seriously inventive one. * The Spectator *Surplus-Enjoyment is the author at his most supple, addressing urgent current concerns and the need for a global solidarity that cannot be divorced from egalitarianism. ... Zizek is a pick-me-up for fatigued brains, a true radical and an authentic left-wing conservative who wants to prevent the social disintegration that threatens our civic life. * The Prisma: The Multicultural Newspaper *Table of ContentsOuverture: Living In A Topsy-Turvy World 1. Where Is The Rift? Marx, Capitalism, And Ecology 2. A Non-binary Difference? Psychoanalysis, Politics, And Philosophy 3. Surplus-Enjoyment, Or, Why Do We Enjoy Our Oppression Finale: Subjective Destitution As A Political Category Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisSlavoj Žižek is a Hegelian philosopher, a Lacanian psychoanalyst, and a Communist. He is International Director at the Birkbeck Institute for Humanities, University of London, UK, Visiting Professor at the New York University, USA, and Senior Researcher at the Department of Philosophy, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewA book of profound philosophical investigation. * David Marx Book Reviews *Table of ContentsINTRODUCTION: IS HEGEL DEAD — OR ARE WE DEAD (IN THE EYES OF HEGEL)? When the Kraken Wakes A Report from the Trenches of Dialectical Materialism I THE DISPARITY OF TRUTH: SUBJECT, OBJECT, AND THE REST 1. FROM HUMAN TO POSTHUMAN AND BACK TO INHUMAN: THE PERSISTENCE OF ONTOLOGICAL DIFFERENCE Aspects of Disparity Against the Univocity of Being Posthuman, Transhuman, Inhuman Hyperobjects in the Age of Anthropocene Biology or Quantum Physics? 2. OBJECTS, OBJECTS AND THE SUBJECT Re-enchanting Nature? No, Thanks! A Detour: Ideology in Pluriverse On a Subject Which Is Not an Object Resistance, Stasis, Repetition Speculative Judgment The Subject’s Epigenesis 3. SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS, WHICH SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS? AGAINST THE RENORMALIZATION OF HEGEL In Defense of Hegel’s Madness The Immediacy of Mediation The Stick in Itself, for Us, for Itself Action and Responsibility Recollection, Forgiveness, Reconciliation Healing the Wound Self-consciousness = Freedom = Reason Reflexivity of the Unconscious II THE DISPARITY OF BEAUTY: THE UGLY, THE ABJECT, AND THE MINIMAL DIFFERENCE 4. ART AFTER HEGEL, HEGEL AFTER THE END OF ART With Hegel Against Hegel The Ugly Gaze From the Sublime to the Monstrous Hegel’s Path towards the Nonfigurative Between Auschwitz and Telenovelas 5. VERSIONS OF ABJECT: UGLY, CREEPY, DISGUSTING Varieties of Disavowal Traversing Abjection “MOOR EEFFOC” From Abjective to Creepy Mamatschi! Eisler’s Sinthoms 6. WHEN NOTHING CHANGES: TWO SCENES OF SUBJECTIVE DESTITUTION The Lesson of Psychoanalysis Music as a Sign of Love A Failed Betrayal Scene from a Happy Life III THE DISPARITY OF THE GOOD: TOWARDS A MATERIALIST NEGATIVE THEOLOGY 7. TRIBULATIONS OF A WOMAN-HYENA: AUTHORITY, COSTUME, AND FRIENDSHIP Why Heidegger Should Not Be Criminalized The Birth of Fascism out of the Spirit of Beauty Don Carlos between Auhthority and Friendship Stalin as Anti-Master Schiller versus Hegel The Self-Debased Authority 8. IS GOD DEAD, UNCONSCIOUS, EVIL, IMPOTENT, STUPID OR JUST COUNTERFACTUAL? On Divine Inexistence Counterfactuals Retroactivity, Omnipotence, and Impotence The Twelfth Camel as One of the Names of God A Truth That Arises out of a Lie The Divine Death-Drive The Deposed God 9. JECT OR SCEND? FROM THE TRAUMATIZED SUBJECT TO SUBJECT AS TRAUMA The Parallax of Drive and Desire Immortality as Death in Life The Troubles with Finitude Materialism or Agnosticism? A Comical Conclusion CONCLUSION: THE COURAGE OF HOPELESSNESS The Millenarian “Exhalation of Stale Gas” Divine Violence The Points of the Impossible Index

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Book SynopsisMarx's critique of political economy is vital for understanding the crisis of contemporary capitalism. Yet the nature of its relevance and some of its key tenets remain poorly understood. This bold intervention brings together the work of leading Marx scholars Slavoj Žižek, Frank Ruda and Agon Hamza, to offer a fresh, radical reinterpretation of Marxism that explains the failures of neoliberalism and lays the foundations for a new emancipatory politics. Avoiding trite comparisons between Marx's worldview and our current political scene, the authors show that the current relevance and value of Marx's thought can better be explained by placing his key ideas in dialogue with those that have attempted to replace them. Reading Marx through Hegel and Lacan, particle physics, and modern political trends, the authors provide new ways to explain the crisis in contemporary capitalism and resist fundamentalism in all its forms. Reading Marx will find a wide audience amongst activists and scholars.Trade Review“Reading Marx is not only a call for seeing Marx’s renewed importance today; it also reveals the potency of the intersection of philosophy and Marx. It presents revelations on every page that point toward how we might think a philosophical Marxism.”Todd McGowan, University of Vermont “The authors of this timely book reverse the conventional approach of understanding Marx by critiquing Hegel; they start from Marx and then turn to Hegel. In this way they open up a whole new intellectual horizon.”Kojin Karatani, Columbia University ‘fascinating’ Boston Review Table of Contents Acknowledgments Introduction: Reading Marx: Unexpected Reunions Chapter 1: Marx Reads Object-Oriented-Ontology Chapter 2: Marx in the Cave Chapter 3: Imprinting Negativity: Hegel Reads Marx To Resume (and not Conclude) Notes Index

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Book SynopsisMarx's critique of political economy is vital for understanding the crisis of contemporary capitalism. Yet the nature of its relevance and some of its key tenets remain poorly understood. This bold intervention brings together the work of leading Marx scholars Slavoj Žižek, Frank Ruda and Agon Hamza, to offer a fresh, radical reinterpretation of Marxism that explains the failures of neoliberalism and lays the foundations for a new emancipatory politics. Avoiding trite comparisons between Marx's worldview and our current political scene, the authors show that the current relevance and value of Marx's thought can better be explained by placing his key ideas in dialogue with those that have attempted to replace them. Reading Marx through Hegel and Lacan, particle physics, and modern political trends, the authors provide new ways to explain the crisis in contemporary capitalism and resist fundamentalism in all its forms. Reading Marx will find a wide audience amongst activists and scholars.Trade Review“Reading Marx is not only a call for seeing Marx’s renewed importance today; it also reveals the potency of the intersection of philosophy and Marx. It presents revelations on every page that point toward how we might think a philosophical Marxism.” Todd McGowan, University of Vermont “The authors of this timely book reverse the conventional approach of understanding Marx by critiquing Hegel; they start from Marx and then turn to Hegel. In this way they open up a whole new intellectual horizon.” Kojin Karatani, Columbia University "fascinating"Boston ReviewTable of Contents Acknowledgments Introduction: Reading Marx: Unexpected Reunions Chapter 1: Marx Reads Object-Oriented-Ontology Chapter 2: Marx in the Cave Chapter 3: Imprinting Negativity: Hegel Reads Marx To Resume (and not Conclude) Notes Index

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Book SynopsisNo other Marxist text has come close to achieving the fame and influence of The Communist Manifesto. Translated into over 100 languages, this clarion call to the workers of the world radically shaped the events of the twentieth century. But what relevance does it have for us today? In this slim book Slavoj Zizek argues that, while exploitation no longer occurs the way Marx described it, it has by no means disappeared; on the contrary, the profit once generated through the exploitation of workers has been transformed into rent appropriated through the privatization of the ‘general intellect’. Entrepreneurs like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg have become extremely wealthy not because they are exploiting their workers but because they are appropriating the rent for allowing millions of people to participate in the new form of the ‘general intellect’ that they own and control. But, even if Marx’s analysis can no longer be applied to our contemporary world of global capitalism without significant revision, the fundamental problem with which he was concerned, the problem of the commons in all its dimensions – the commons of nature, the cultural commons, and the commons as the universal space of humanity from which no one should be excluded – remains as relevant as ever. This timely reflection on the enduring relevance of The Communist Manifesto will be of great value to everyone interested in the key questions of radical politics today.

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Book SynopsisNo other Marxist text has come close to achieving the fame and influence of The Communist Manifesto. Translated into over 100 languages, this clarion call to the workers of the world radically shaped the events of the twentieth century. But what relevance does it have for us today? In this slim book Slavoj Zizek argues that, while exploitation no longer occurs the way Marx described it, it has by no means disappeared; on the contrary, the profit once generated through the exploitation of workers has been transformed into rent appropriated through the privatization of the ‘general intellect’. Entrepreneurs like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg have become extremely wealthy not because they are exploiting their workers but because they are appropriating the rent for allowing millions of people to participate in the new form of the ‘general intellect’ that they own and control. But, even if Marx’s analysis can no longer be applied to our contemporary world of global capitalism without significant revision, the fundamental problem with which he was concerned, the problem of the commons in all its dimensions – the commons of nature, the cultural commons, and the commons as the universal space of humanity from which no one should be excluded – remains as relevant as ever. This timely reflection on the enduring relevance of The Communist Manifesto will be of great value to everyone interested in the key questions of radical politics today.

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Book SynopsisWith irrepressible humor, Slavoj Žižek dissects our current political and social climate, discussing everything from Jordan Peterson and sex “unicorns” to Greta Thunberg and Chairman Mao. Taking aim at his enemies on the Left, Right, and Center, he argues that contemporary society can only be properly understood from a communist standpoint. Why communism? The greater the triumph of global capitalism, the more its dangerous antagonisms multiply: climate collapse, the digital manipulation of our lives, the explosion in refugee numbers – all need a radical solution. That solution is a Left that dares to speak its name, to get its hands dirty in the real world of contemporary politics, not to sling its insults from the sidelines or to fight a culture war that is merely a fig leaf covering its political and economic failures. As the crises caused by contemporary capitalism accumulate at an alarming rate, the Left finds itself in crisis too, beset with competing ideologies and prone to populism, racism, and conspiracy theories. A Left that Dares to Speak Its Name is Žižek’s attempt to elucidate the major political issues of the day from a truly radical Leftist position. The first three parts explore the global political situation and the final part focuses on contemporary Western culture, as Žižek directs his polemic to topics such as wellness, Wikileaks, and the rights of sexbots. This wide-ranging collection of essays provides the perfect insight into the ideas of one of the most influential radical thinkers of our time.Trade Review�The most dangerous philosopher in the West.� Adam Kirsch, New Republic �Žižek leaves no social or cultural phenomenon untheorized, and is master of the counterintuitive observation.� The New Yorker Table of ContentsIntroduction: From the Communist Standpoint The Global Mess 1 200 Years After: Is Marx Alive, Dead, or a Living Dead? 2 Why Secondary Contradictions Matter: A Maoist View 3 Nomadic // Proletarians 4 Should the Left’s Answer to Rightist Populism Really be a “Me Too”? 5 When Unfreedom Itself is Experienced as Freedom 6 Only Autistic Children Can Save Us! 7 They are Both Worse! 8 A Desperate Call for (T)Reason The West… 9 Democratic Socialism and Its Discontents 10 Is Donald Trump a Frog Embracing a Bottle of Beer? 11 Better Dead than Red! 12 “There is Disorder Under Heaven, the Situation is Excellent” 13 Soyons realistes, demandons l’impossible! 14 Catalonia and the End of Europe 15 Which Idea of Europe is Worth Defending? 16 The Right to Tell the Public Bad News …And The Rest 17 It’s the Same Struggle, Dummy! 18 The Real Anti-Semites and Their Zionist Friends 19 Yes, Racism is Alive and Well! 20 What is to be Done When Our Cupola is Leaking? 21 Is China Communist or Capitalist? 22 Venezuela and the Need for New Clichés 23 Welcome to the True New World Order! 24 A True Miracle in Bosnia Ideology 25 For Active Solidarity, Against Guilt and Self-Reproach 26 Sherbsky Institute, APA 27 Welcome to the Brave New World of Consenticorns! 28 Do Sexbots have Rights? 29 Nipples, Penis, Vulva…and Maybe Shit 30 Cuaron’s Roma: The Trap of Goodness 31 Happiness? No, Thanks! 32 Assange has Only us to Help Him! Appendix 33 Is Avital Ronell Really Toxic? 34 Jordan Peterson as a Symptom…of What? Notes

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Book SynopsisWith irrepressible humor, Slavoj Žižek dissects our current political and social climate, discussing everything from Jordan Peterson and sex “unicorns” to Greta Thunberg and Chairman Mao. Taking aim at his enemies on the Left, Right, and Center, he argues that contemporary society can only be properly understood from a communist standpoint. Why communism? The greater the triumph of global capitalism, the more its dangerous antagonisms multiply: climate collapse, the digital manipulation of our lives, the explosion in refugee numbers – all need a radical solution. That solution is a Left that dares to speak its name, to get its hands dirty in the real world of contemporary politics, not to sling its insults from the sidelines or to fight a culture war that is merely a fig leaf covering its political and economic failures. As the crises caused by contemporary capitalism accumulate at an alarming rate, the Left finds itself in crisis too, beset with competing ideologies and prone to populism, racism, and conspiracy theories. A Left that Dares to Speak Its Name is Žižek’s attempt to elucidate the major political issues of the day from a truly radical Leftist position. The first three parts explore the global political situation and the final part focuses on contemporary Western culture, as Žižek directs his polemic to topics such as wellness, Wikileaks, and the rights of sexbots. This wide-ranging collection of essays provides the perfect insight into the ideas of one of the most influential radical thinkers of our time.Trade Review�The most dangerous philosopher in the West.� Adam Kirsch, New Republic �Žižek leaves no social or cultural phenomenon untheorized, and is master of the counterintuitive observation.� The New Yorker Table of ContentsIntroduction: From the Communist Standpoint The Global Mess 1 200 Years After: Is Marx Alive, Dead, or a Living Dead? 2 Why Secondary Contradictions Matter: A Maoist View 3 Nomadic // Proletarians 4 Should the Left’s Answer to Rightist Populism Really be a “Me Too”? 5 When Unfreedom Itself is Experienced as Freedom 6 Only Autistic Children Can Save Us! 7 They are Both Worse! 8 A Desperate Call for (T)Reason The West… 9 Democratic Socialism and Its Discontents 10 Is Donald Trump a Frog Embracing a Bottle of Beer? 11 Better Dead than Red! 12 “There is Disorder Under Heaven, the Situation is Excellent” 13 Soyons realistes, demandons l’impossible! 14 Catalonia and the End of Europe 15 Which Idea of Europe is Worth Defending? 16 The Right to Tell the Public Bad News …And The Rest 17 It’s the Same Struggle, Dummy! 18 The Real Anti-Semites and Their Zionist Friends 19 Yes, Racism is Alive and Well! 20 What is to be Done When Our Cupola is Leaking? 21 Is China Communist or Capitalist? 22 Venezuela and the Need for New Clichés 23 Welcome to the True New World Order! 24 A True Miracle in Bosnia Ideology 25 For Active Solidarity, Against Guilt and Self-Reproach 26 Sherbsky Institute, APA 27 Welcome to the Brave New World of Consenticorns! 28 Do Sexbots have Rights? 29 Nipples, Penis, Vulva…and Maybe Shit 30 Cuaron’s Roma: The Trap of Goodness 31 Happiness? No, Thanks! 32 Assange has Only us to Help Him! Appendix 33 Is Avital Ronell Really Toxic? 34 Jordan Peterson as a Symptom…of What? Notes

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Book SynopsisA spirit is haunting contemporary thought – the spirit of Hegel. All the powers of academia have entered into a holy alliance to exorcize this spirit: Vitalists and Eschatologists, Transcendental Pragmatists and Speculative Realists, Historical Materialists and even ‘liberal Hegelians’. Which of these groups has not been denounced as metaphysically Hegelian by its opponents? And which has not hurled back the branding reproach of Hegelian metaphysics in its turn? Progressives, liberals and reactionaries alike receive this condemnation. In light of this situation, it is high time that true Hegelians should openly admit their allegiance and, without obfuscation, express the importance and validity of Hegelianism to the contemporary intellectual scene. To this end, a small group of Hegelians of different nationalities have assembled to sketch the following book – a book which addresses a number of pressing issues that a contemporary reading of Hegel allows a new perspective on: our relation to the future, our relation to nature and our relation to the absolute.Trade Review“If our situation is marked by the fact that an order seems to continue that has long since begun to disintegrate, then Hegel is the thinker of the present. He is not the guardian of this order, which the current liberal, pragmatist reading makes him out to be. Instead, he thinks of what dissolves it from within. Reading Hegel shows what the true Hegelian presence is.”Christoph Menke, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main “The authors take a firm stance against all attempts to normalize or domesticate Hegel – what they find most inspiring in him is precisely what is usually seen as his most problematic points: the notion of absolute knowing, his philosophy of nature, his advocacy of the state, his take on religion. In what appears outrageous in Hegel, they find the formidable thinker of the future.”Mladen Dolar, University of LjubljanaTable of ContentsNotes on the text Introduction 1. Hegel: The Spirit of Distrust 2. Hegel on the Rocks: Remarks on Hegel’s Concept of Nature 3. The Future of the Absolute Notes Index

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Book SynopsisA spirit is haunting contemporary thought – the spirit of Hegel. All the powers of academia have entered into a holy alliance to exorcize this spirit: Vitalists and Eschatologists, Transcendental Pragmatists and Speculative Realists, Historical Materialists and even ‘liberal Hegelians’. Which of these groups has not been denounced as metaphysically Hegelian by its opponents? And which has not hurled back the branding reproach of Hegelian metaphysics in its turn? Progressives, liberals and reactionaries alike receive this condemnation. In light of this situation, it is high time that true Hegelians should openly admit their allegiance and, without obfuscation, express the importance and validity of Hegelianism to the contemporary intellectual scene. To this end, a small group of Hegelians of different nationalities have assembled to sketch the following book – a book which addresses a number of pressing issues that a contemporary reading of Hegel allows a new perspective on: our relation to the future, our relation to nature and our relation to the absolute.Trade Review“If our situation is marked by the fact that an order seems to continue that has long since begun to disintegrate, then Hegel is the thinker of the present. He is not the guardian of this order, which the current liberal, pragmatist reading makes him out to be. Instead, he thinks of what dissolves it from within. Reading Hegel shows what the true Hegelian presence is.”Christoph Menke, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main “The authors take a firm stance against all attempts to normalize or domesticate Hegel – what they find most inspiring in him is precisely what is usually seen as his most problematic points: the notion of absolute knowing, his philosophy of nature, his advocacy of the state, his take on religion. In what appears outrageous in Hegel, they find the formidable thinker of the future.”Mladen Dolar, University of LjubljanaTable of ContentsNotes on the textIntroduction1. Hegel: The Spirit of Distrust2. Hegel on the Rocks: Remarks on Hegel’s Concept of Nature3. The Future of the AbsoluteNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisWhat do sex doll sales, locust swarms and a wired-brain pig have to do with the coronavirus pandemic? Everything—according to that “Giant of Lubliana,” the inimitable Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek. In this exhilarating sequel to his acclaimed Pandemic!: COVID-19 Shakes the World, Žižek delves into some of the more surprising dimensions of lockdowns, quarantines, and social distancing—and the increasingly unruly opposition to them by “response fatigued” publics around the world. Žižek examines the ripple effects on the food supply of harvest failures caused by labor shortages and the hyper-exploitation of the global class of care workers, without whose labor daily life would be impossible. Through such examples he pinpoints the inability of contemporary capitalism to safeguard effectively the public in times of crisis. Writing with characteristic daring and zeal, Žižek ranges across critical theory, pop-culture, and psychoanalysis to reveal the troubling dynamics of knowledge and power emerging in these viral times.

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Book SynopsisWhat do sex doll sales, locust swarms and a wired-brain pig have to do with the coronavirus pandemic? Everything—according to that “Giant of Lubliana,” the inimitable Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek. In this exhilarating sequel to his acclaimed Pandemic!: COVID-19 Shakes the World, Žižek delves into some of the more surprising dimensions of lockdowns, quarantines, and social distancing—and the increasingly unruly opposition to them by “response fatigued” publics around the world. Žižek examines the ripple effects on the food supply of harvest failures caused by labor shortages and the hyper-exploitation of the global class of care workers, without whose labor daily life would be impossible. Through such examples he pinpoints the inability of contemporary capitalism to safeguard effectively the public in times of crisis. Writing with characteristic daring and zeal, Žižek ranges across critical theory, pop-culture, and psychoanalysis to reveal the troubling dynamics of knowledge and power emerging in these viral times.

Read more less