This wonderful book is not to be missed. As a matter of fact I have been waiting for it for years!
My foray into the world of Slavoj Žižek started when I first watched this video a while ago. This is a video of a 2003 TV program, where Rudnev and Aronson, two Russian philosophers discuss Wittgenstein. Towards the end of it (one minute before it ends, actually), Rudnev regrets that they don’t have time to address modern philosophy and says, that for him, the only contemporary who can be read today with interest is Slavoj Žižek. Aronson laughs, calling Žižek “re-teller”, Rudnev is slightly embarrassed and retorts defensively, that today the only way for philosophy is eclecticism.
At this point I realized, that it was time to start reading Žižek seriously. Until then I only glanced through one or two of his political articles and did not think I would pursue it any further as I was horrified (and still am) by his political views. As a matter of fact I have rarely encountered anything insulting common sense more than Žižek’s political views. Perhaps Chomsky’s political views. However, a man’s politics (and movie criticism) and his philosophy are completely different things and should be separated.
Ever since picking up Less than Nothing (which in and of itself may be considered quite an endeavor since the hard cover volume is pretty heavy), I was completely assimilated into the Žižek camp. Naturally, this required reading Lacan, which among other things made me doubt command of the French language: his or mine, I was not sure, but it was excruciating. Lacan is more of a talker than a writer.
Since I traveled the whole route zigzagging from Less than Nothing to earlier works, to political works, to Absolute Recoil, I had a benefit of watching how Žižek’s philosophical personality (subject) was born in the future and made its way to the past, defining its own presuppositions. Earlier works can now be perceived as “future anterior”, from the point of view of the later ones. And always, two lingering questions remained: 1. So, where are we regarding the late Schelling and Hegel as starting points to our attempt at understanding the Real? and 2. Žižek is certainly not an eclectic or re-teller. But since he is not a system-builder of any kind either (what a heresy it would be to even think that for a second!) what is in the core of his ideas? And why is psychoanalysis so important? Yes, Lacan as a refracting device which affords a new look at Kant and Hegel is great, but why? And why, unlike Johnston, is Žižek not starting to ask “materialist” questions? And even stressing more and more, that every true materialist has to start from idealism? (Lenin rolling in his grave, I hope).
This book answers all of these questions. No spoilers here, it deserves a close reading! I also like the divergence from the quasineurscientific project of Malabou and Johnston. It is great that these intuitions are emerging now, but I do not believe neuroscience is anywhere near a level that could serve as a starting point for building an interface to psychoanalysis.
Vita Contemplativa 