zizek: philosophy's gateway drug

@SPACEDOUT19

3 жыл бұрын

He's right though. I'm an opioid addict, 3 years tomorrow since i started.

@mobiditch6848

3 жыл бұрын

@@SPACEDOUT19 between fire the wheel and opiates, the most important discovery/invention was for sure opiates.

@claspe1049

3 жыл бұрын

This is the problem with the internet, magic mushrooms have become a gateway drug.

@dethkon

3 жыл бұрын

Mobi Ditch Opiates are truly wonderful. They must be heaven sent, if there is indeed a God.

@dethkon

3 жыл бұрын

Cla Spe I don’t view that as a bad thing. I think that the more people who eat Psilocybe mushrooms, with the proper respect, intention, and education, the better. There’s like thousands of hours of Terence McKenna lectures on KZread as well, which is great.

Zizek has embraced the bruh moment where we still fear it

@mimszanadunstedt441

Жыл бұрын

Embrace cringe its the future, all the zoomers are doing it, and all the interwebz. But really, cringe is processed highly similarly to physical pain, which means subconsciously its a conformity pressure. As in, how homophobic violence happens. The ones who feel the most cringe are the ones repressing their homosexual selves the most. Cringe is literally the effect of the subconscious fear of social violence. For the one cringing. The trick is to have divergent thinking not convergent thinking. And people rebel against it in every fascet of society. Like, if you even do lateral thinking *once* a good third of people in the same group as you will tend to try and shut you down for lack of comprehension and for subconscious conformity.

"Pour yourself a glass of something". Dude, I'm already smashed.

@sepijortikka

3 жыл бұрын

Hahahahah same :)

I'm just getting into critical theory and philosophy in general. So many of these figures-Baudrillard, Zizek, etc.-are bogged down by media perceptions and their own convoluted language. I cannot say enough how much your videos have helped me grasp these complex, enthralling ideas

@asuka_the_void_witch

Жыл бұрын

that's philosophy for ya

I cannot imagine a worse term that Zizek uses that will throw people off regarding Hegel than Aufhebung. Just fucking say dialectics or sublation lmao. This video is going to be extremely serviceable to people who just want introductory thought into Zizek. Definitely much more serviceable than I could have made it. This is great. Keep up the wonderful work my friend, and thank you for the link to my vid!

@watcher8582

3 жыл бұрын

As a German speaking person, I'm a big fan of the word Aufhebung and I wouldn't want to miss it. It's really fun that "aufheben" equally means "to lift up" and "to keep", and translation just pins it down too much. It's similar with a German joke phrase, that includes the words "zum Glück", which literally translates as "to the luck" and is used for "luckily" and "to be blissful". The sentence is "Der Bachelor ist ein Mann, dem zum Glück die Frau fehlt" which verbatim translate as "The bachelor is a man, who 'to the luck' the wife is missing". In German, it equally reads "The bachelor is a man who luckily is without a wife" AND "The bachelor is a man who, for him to be (eventually) lucky (happy/blissful), is (just) missing a wife". The character of the sentence is that it has two directly opposing readings at the same time, and pinning it down either way would make a difference sentence out of it: Something that means something different, since it would only mean one thing. It's not clear from the word alone, to me anyway, why "aufheben" has the meaning "to keep", but it is what it is. If you translate it to give it a particular meaning, the word is not translated.

@insomnius5175

3 жыл бұрын

@@watcher8582 It doesnt just mean "to lift up" and "to keep" but also "to remove". A wonderful word to illustrate the concept of dialectics. It shouldnt be translated. Especially since you just cant translate it appropriatly. Hegel exactly chose this word because it means to remove and to keep something at the same time. Which is pretty much what dialectics is in the first place. Translating it into something like "overcoming" is completly missing the inherent dialectic of the word, which is rather ... ironic.

@gracchusresurgit1158

3 жыл бұрын

Well I mean if you have great philosophical terms, which have a linguistic ambiguity/structure that illustrates the concept (like Aufhebung or méconnaisance) , you should use it, instead of making up a new one in your language, that is only used in Philosophy. The verb "aufheben" is common place in the german language and the french word "méconnaisance" is easy to understand if you know the word "connaisance" (which is very basic french), while, as a non-native speaker, I had no idea what "sublation" was supposed to mean. So while you can use simpler terms, those should not work as a replacement.

@DarkAngelEU

3 жыл бұрын

Zizek doesn't really make it a secret that he loves Hegel. He's a famous scholar of Lacan and there is a VICE documentary where he expresses his fascination with Stalin and the Communist project. So I don't really get how people "mistake" Zizek for being an idiot, because it is ALWAYS obvious which philosophies he adheres to. The problem I think there is to him, and many others seem to agree on, is that his philosophy is not trying to define any kind of synthesis. Rather, he analyzes alot of stuff and spins it into his own interpretation, which seems to change directions as often as the wind does. Yeah, he thinks we live in an ideological world, the ideology is called Capitalism, and we are stuck in a post-historical crisis because we cannot think of an ideology beyond Capitalism, but that's nothing new. What would be amazingly revolutionary is that he would actually try to present his own model that leaves behind the ideology of Capitalism. Someone simply pointing the finger and saying "oh, Capitalism is bad. Look at all these cultural artefacts that are trying to rebel against it." is something we've been doing ever since Capitalism exists. As a philosopher, you're not only supposed to occupy yourself with what is happening now, but you're also supposed to think ahead of the curve, to somewhat predict what might be possible in the future and prepare a model for that. Chomsky did that with linguistics, which is why I respect him as a philosopher. Foucault, likewise, did that with identity. They saw the future. Here is a philosopher who says he sees no future. That it is impossible. So he prefers not to act. He simply thinks. The truth is he does act, because he publishes his ideas, he gives lectures, he makes movies, and so on and so on. Here Zizek fails his own philosophy, because he abandoned his original project of re-inventing Hegel's model for contemporary purposes. Instead, he has jumped the bandwagon of analyzing metamodern events through the lens of capitalism, cinéma and pop culture. He's still someone worth reading, I learned alot from him, but alot of his ideas can be picked apart and critiqued on because they aren't very coherent and not all of them are subjective interpretations rather than course dialectics - which the more traditional philosophers are rather careful with. I think I'd compare him to Nietzsche, because they similarly cause alot of controversy and their texts are in need of perspective that only time can give. Believe it or not, Nietzsche only became popular and respected as a philosopher during the 1950's, because (Post-)Structural philosophers greatly admired his vision of a Godless society, his early efforts towards Feminism, and the false objectivity of ideals like what constitutes Good and Evil. It was considered somewhat prophetic that a 19th Century philosopher had described a society in the conditions Europe resided after World War 2. Lacan is only gaining some mainstream popularity in academic circles nowadays, so I'd say if Zizek were ever to be taken seriously, it would also be somewhere in the future. His notion that unbridled Capitalism is broken is popular in USA, but in Europe we've been working with that idea since the 1920's. Hegel has been making a comeback because of Zizek, so he does have a certain influence. However, I wouldn't say that Zizek is that much respected as a philosopher rather as a sensation. Like Byron, and Nietzsche, I think that will only come somewhere after his death, when the media circus moves on to the next hype and his words instead of his acts and behavior take front stage. That is, if the world has changed in favor of his ideas.

@stevenf5902

3 жыл бұрын

@@DarkAngelEU Thanks for that mate

Waiting for those zizek fan comments 👀 On a side note. Congrats to Pills and the crew for bringing us top notch content through out the year.

Literally describing the LSD trip I had yesterday

@mobiditch6848

3 жыл бұрын

Not to weird that you characterize this related to LSD. If Castaneda can be rescued from the new age Illuminati, the chapters in (I believe) Journey To Ixtlan, entitled “Having To Believe”, and “Not Doing”, may have relevance to grasping the negation question. Anyway, happy tripping...the “word” (signifier) is a “drug”.

@dustycatfish5658

3 жыл бұрын

Ive been wanting to see what Zizeckl would think of the deep ayahuasca experience for some time now-- an exporsure to 'the real' seems to be a common theme. Thanks for your comment

@asuka_the_void_witch

Жыл бұрын

@@mobiditch6848 damn i gotta consume some castaneda

@mobiditch6848

Жыл бұрын

@@asuka_the_void_witch there are many books. I’d begin with the third, Journey to Ixtlan. It is essentially a revision of the time frame covered by the first two books, The Lessons of Don Juan and A Separate Reality, from the perspective post-psychedelic. Then the fourth book, Tales of Power. By then you may be addicted.

@asuka_the_void_witch

Жыл бұрын

@@mobiditch6848 cool

Great to hear FIsher being brought into the fold, this ability to provide solid examples of the ideology at play

"Are we aware that this, how you say, er, er "Plastic Pills" has made KZread video about me? I asked for a third pill, be careful what you ask for is the lesson here *chuckles* *sniff* - but really he is not a complete idiot, you should watch his videos and podcasts, whatever..."

@MarcillaSmith

3 жыл бұрын

... and so on

@Panosky

3 жыл бұрын

Is this an actual quote? :))

@MarcillaSmith

3 жыл бұрын

@@Panosky sections of it, certainly

bro you definitely the kinda guy your audience wants to take selfies with, so you must be doing a lot of things right. Love from India!

@artnarchist1392

3 жыл бұрын

@Vibhat kumar zizek's comment on Hegel's India is a fitting address to your lament (though I can vouch for the existence of a sizable number of his indian followers outside of YT comments, as I'm sure, can you) ‘Hegel’s India takes the challenge of a detailed reading of Hegel’s texts with a surprising result: behind Hegel’s dismissal of India, there lies not only his profound fascination with India but also an uncanny proximity between India’s ancient wisdom and Hegel’s speculative thought. Beneath Hegel’s India, we can discern the traces of what would have been India’s Hegel. [This book] provides a model of how a dialogue between different cultures should be practiced, beyond the confines of Eurocentrism and historicist relativism.’ -Slavoj Žižek, International Director, the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, University of London, United Kingdom Cheers!

@artnarchist1392

3 жыл бұрын

@@kushalunune2084 certainly sounds like we're buddies now, huh❤️

@artnarchist1392

3 жыл бұрын

@@kushalunune2084 just pressed play on hidden places and I must say cleaning the house just reached new levels of 💣 Also, I'm definitely a dumb dipshit, none of that knowledge shit will I take as compliments hahah, but thanks for the kindness ❤️

@artnarchist1392

3 жыл бұрын

Hiding*

@artnarchist1392

3 жыл бұрын

@@kushalunune2084 man couldn't have expressed that lack of people to motivate argument and debate better myself. Most people are content with tearing one another down in the name of debate. I looked you up on the gram but that dude might not be you, so unless you're kushal_unune there then I must admit I slid into some rando's DMs like the slimy 🐍 I am hahah

I have been listening to Žižek talk for probably more than 10 years now - always entertaining, insightful but also seemed like it’s beyond me to actually understand his system/philosophy, so I kept it at that. I think this is the first time I got a deeper understanding of Žižek’s philosophy, thank you!

I am really impressed with this guy's videos. It's not easy to talk about any of this stuff without sounding like a jargon-generating machine and he (usually) manages to do so. Almost equally impressive is that he seems to be the only American person currently living who can actually pronounce foreign words correctly. Bravo!

@mariapaula3376

Жыл бұрын

Pills is canadian

@mrgeorgejetson

Жыл бұрын

@@mariapaula3376 Well I guess that at least partially explains it. I wonder if he's from Montreal, like me. The funny thing is, in my experience at least, Canadians anywhere west of Winnipeg are just as lacking in French skills as any American.

Congrats on your first whole year! I don't even remember how i first found your channel, but i do remember being baffled at how quality your content was and yet you only had 1000 subs. Thanks a lot for your content, you've been an immense help in my little theory journey and to many others i'm sure

this is clearly your passion, but to dissect such dense work to then condense it into a clear summary with examples, THEN to edit all of that to make it easy to absorb is amazing. thank you for your efforts and for this page!

I really like they way you broke down and simplified the theory using the term “you” for the the idea of the subject. it felt like a direct way of getting around the complexity and specificity of language, which is often the hardest part of understanding what is said. 10/10 vid, subscribed.

Commenting for the algorithm, because, honestly, this channel has some of the most incisive and interesting videos on philosophy on KZread. The videos on Lacan were especially amazing. Glad ThoughtSlime recommended PlasticPills in the Eyeball Zone. And I wish the channel all the best with growing in the new year.

Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you. Dude I have been getting deep into zizek after having gotten deep into your vids and I was looking for a deep dives into zizek’s perspective because I was struggling. Then I saw your title and laughed. Sums it up so well!

I was waiting for a Žižek video ever since I watched your explanation on Lacan. Really glad that you did it before the new year. Lots of sniffing in this video ;)

Waiting for more Zizek videos. Thank you so much !

Subscribed to the Patreon and so glad I did! Thanks for your work

This video was amazing. Thank you for helping me understand the actual philosophical core of Zizeks project.

Nice work Pills. You squared the circle for me on Lacan’s position in Zizek’s revolutionary dialectic. And I liked the clever bit dropping other Zizek book titles in the script, sneaky. 👍

now i want a fight between Deleuze and Zizek damn. would be interesting with some analysis from Mark Fisher.

@TobsterX1

3 жыл бұрын

Zizek wrote a book on Deleuze, 'Organs without bodies'

@HybridHalfie

3 жыл бұрын

Side note I love in rainbows my fav album ever. On the your comment I would love that I still side with deleuze on being against the Hegelian dialectic. That’s where my disagreements with sides lie. But I’m also biased as being pretty Nietzsche oriented in my thinking. Hence why I like deleuze

@HybridHalfie

2 жыл бұрын

Dude. yes. Just finished capitalist realism and just started Anti-Oedipus. Loved Fisher RIP that book made me realize my "ADHD" is political and social as much as psychological and individual. I used to be into zizek years ago but I am not a big Hegelian I dig the trippy flows and shit of Deleuze in its affirmation of difference and especially DnG way of framing desire as productive. But also my philosophy roots are in Nietzsche so it makes sense why I like Deleuze. I know Zizek does not really "get" Nietzsche per se in strict terms of philosophy. Fisher would prolly be on both cause he cites DnG and zizek so much capitalist realism. Its just like how DnG still use lots of lacanian concepts even though they are against the totality of tghe project. With Deluzue and Nietzsche you take what you need to serve life and make into into something new.

It's nice to see someone with passion and a sense of humor do something they love while attempting to educate.

Great video to end the year on - thank you for your hard work, its been a blessing through 2020.

What are you talking about? You absolutely grasp the ideas, in fact so well that you can explain them to lay people like me so we can understand! This has to be the best youtube channel i came across (and subbed to, ofc)!

I can't thank enough for that one video I came across the past year on Zizek. It was an introduction to philosophy. Now I am trying to understand everything from Descartes to Kierkegaard to Freud to Lacan. Hopefully one day, I will understand what Zizek was up to and I will be able to think critically about what he is saying. But if there is just one thing trying to get to know Zizek and psychoanalysis has taught me, it is to live with the contradiction of the self. It is not a beautiful road of rainbows and sunshine, but it is helping me understand the duality of myself. 2020 may have been a shit year, but at least I got into something that I enjoy.

@lela_x

Жыл бұрын

Was it actually shit ?

Quite simply the best KZread channel of this kind. Way ahead of the other breadtube "stars" - you're an absolutely brilliant educator. Bravo! I'll share this far and wide, as many others already have (that's how I got here)!

The book that Zizek takes the "I would prefer not to." on his shirt from, "Bartleby the scrivener" is a great read by the way, there is also a fun essay by Deleuze on that very book.

Pills, I really admire your ability to digest complicated texts and explain them in a concise manner. When you explained Derrida in the first podcast episode, Deleuze and territorialization, Adorno, and now Zizek. Truly you have great skills. You have my sincere appreciation. Happy holidays mate! If I could I would donate to your patreon but I'm broke af right now, hopefully next year. Also, if you're looking for a challenge next year, idk, you might want consider Badiou's "being and event" with all the math he uses and infinity and whatnot.

What a fantastic explanation. It really shows the message of zizek. One realizes the importance and genius of zizek. Thank you very much.

Great content. Will need to watch it a couple of times more to get a better understanding. Thank you.

Thanks for all the work you put into this, I'm glad you found a nice way to overcome alienation and to encourage others into critical thinking. I'm very grateful for content creators such as you.

Great end to the year! Pretty sure this is the clearest explanation of Zizek's philosophical project out there. I hope this is the one that takes you to the big time ;)

Such a great video! Thank you for it, I´m really into philosophy and recently into Zizek and I have never seen a single video about his theory (and I´m afraid of reading his books bc I don´t do Hegel yet). Really informative and entertaining, is what we need! Wishing you a good 2021!

I really love this video, I just wish it was 1/3 as long, but still connecting as much of the ideas. he really is making a great connection with the philosophy.

So glad I found this channel! You do a great job in making more complex ideas more digestible

@philosocat8295

2 жыл бұрын

Zizek "digestible".. this is great on so many levels ;)

@okafka5446

Жыл бұрын

@@philosocat8295 Nice choice of a comment to comment on. Edit - whoops, I'm doing the same.

@philosocat8295

Жыл бұрын

@@okafka5446 I make lots of great choices ;)

@okafka5446

Жыл бұрын

@@philosocat8295 In an effort to break the eternal cycle/recycle, I'd say - What else could we talk about?

This is so good - it makes his theory clearer and more dense and difficult. Terrific stuff.

This is the best breadtube channel in recent memories. Thank you for your work pillboi

Really appreciate all your work on exploring Zizek in earnest. Thanks com

fantastic work!! i understand zizek more than i did... i guess it’s time to curb my internet addiction and finally read a book

@justinlanan2565

3 жыл бұрын

Same here! Easier said than done!

@hyacinth1320

3 жыл бұрын

It's really fun because you will read it with his voice and mannerisms in mind.

@andreben6224

3 жыл бұрын

Urghh I'm the same :( unplugging from the internet is as hard as getting out of the matrix.

Thanks so much for these types of videos

Thanks plastic pills crew for all the awesome content this year. I got turned on to you by my boy "Peter Rollins" love his work he gave you a shout and I'm so glad because it's been amazing 👏 ❤

You are doing great work! I like the style! Keep it up!

Wasn't expecting an Easter egg from my favorite punk band in the video on my favorite philosopher. I agree LTN is the magnum opus. There's so much to be said about today's Hegelian-Lacanian theorists (debates with Badiou, different relationships to Marx, Hegel polemics vs Brandom and Pippen, Lacan polemics vs Miller, political polemics vs Laclau style populism, and so on and...) that I hope you'll consider doing another one, if not on Zizek then perhaps on Zupancic, Johnston, or even Badiou. In any case, thank you for doing (the late capitalist) God's work of popularizing theory in an entertaining enough way to hold our squirrel like attention spans. Hope you have a happy quarantine holiday 🎄

Great video. I had seen some videos of Zizek, but always found myself getting lost at some point. Would love a video on Mark Fisher too

Love the content! thanks, Pills!

Your channel's value is amazing! Love it and excited for more!

Thank you and your team for always Great content 👌👍👏💓

Wonderful video! Your work is bealtiful.

Bravo! I wish we had a fine theory chanel as yours in hungary. It is a little hard to follow this as english isnt my native language, and i have never learned theory but you can still make me think days long about the litteraly mind blowing theories of this philosophers. Thanks! And i wish you happy holidays!

I have just been toying with the idea that the drive (repetition) and its jouissance is necessary for political action. Being only a 100 pages or so into Less than Nothing, I am encouraged to see I am on the right track. Great work! I want to add that this is the best description of objet a I have heard, though to understand it perhaps you must encounter other less precise definitions. So this is worth going back to again and again.

@MadnessDrumProject

3 жыл бұрын

Johnston makes this argument as well in Badiou, Zizek, and Political Transformations -- where critics of Z treat his Lacanianism as an incurable form of conservativism, Johnston stresses the destabilizing nature of jouissance which contributes to radical undertakings

@brandonmiles8174

3 жыл бұрын

Agreed on the objet a thing, and in general especially with harder to grasp philosophical or psychoanalytic concepts, that encountering them several times in a less competent form, really sets you up for pills and/or epoch philosophy in some cases, to drive the concept home. I had very muddled ideas of especially the lacanian triad beforehand and then pills' videos on them was just like taking off the famed 'sunglasses of ideology'. I don't remember exactly which one Epoch Philosophy gave me that moment for, but I think it was Heidegger.

@IgnatiusEPJ

3 жыл бұрын

@@brandonmiles8174 Well that’s Hegel in a nutshell, i.e. paragraph 63 of the Phenomenology.

@brandonmiles8174

3 жыл бұрын

@@IgnatiusEPJ certainly, but thanks for the material reference, because while I understand the concept, that reference is very helpful in allowing me to supplement my albeit weak foundation.

@Megaritz

3 жыл бұрын

The Dangerous Maybe also has some good explanations of the objet petit a, on his blog and in at least one Theory Pleeb video.

Most underrated KZread channel. Really amazing content

I wouldn't say I was into theory really but I enjoy your videos, they're well produced and you're a talented teacher

Hey plastic pills! Have you read Pedagogy of the oppressed by Paulo Friere? Always thought this would be up your alley and it’s an easy read. I got the pdf if you or anyone would like it!

@ninatanlaven7154

3 жыл бұрын

I'd be interested

@fernandodanielnavarrobecke9688

3 жыл бұрын

I am at the moment reading “education as a practice of liberation”, paul friere is a amazing read.

French philosophy student here ! i really love your videos on Deleuze & Guattari, and this video is also very interesting because the media scene is full of caracters (created by the way they are presented, and present themselves), and it is often hard to decide wether someone is indeed a fraud or not ! Thanks :)

Great video as usual many great topics and so on and so on

You and the podcast team are among those who are advancing the thoughts. We may not have the ancient Greece, the Paris salon, or The Enlightenment, but we have this virtual space, and I give thanks to you for working to move the conversation of illumination into the dark corners. Again, many thanks for the thoughtful year. Best &c., -Profit Overlord

I read Sublime Object years ago but I more recently Absolute Recoil. I think he's pretty spot on, I spend a lot of time defending him against attacks from other lefts, this video is absolutely fantastic, I've got somewhere I can just point them to now. Thanks.

Thank you for your quality content!

Just discovered this channel. Great video!

Nice work as always

It’s cool to see how you keep experimenting with the style of your videos, I was wondering if the new music for Derrida was a Halloween thing.

Thank you for such Nice work man! 👌

Things seem to become more hardcore in the end of this absurd year since the last Deleuze episode, really appreciate it. Can't wait to see the battle between D&G and Zizek......

Great video, always learn a lot

I remember watching an interview documentary with him. They went back to his little apartment and as soon as you walk in he has a framed picture of Stalin. He was asked why it was up there, he said it was to piss off all the idiots and laughed. His humor is exactly like my brother in laws who too has all sorts of strange soviet era posters and stuff in his house and jokingly makes Bolsheviks references all the time to laugh at the people who don't get it and laugh at the people who do get it and get offended.

Wonderful. Thanks a lot. Need more.

Excellent take on Less Than Nothing. Thanks.

Amazing as always, thanks for everything you do! It really augments my usual lineup of philosophy/leftist youtubers, and also puts a lot of old concepts in a new light. Good shit, keep it 100.

Thank you for existing ;)!

You are good! Honest and clear. Very strange these days. For this, please continue, I beg. Thank you. Saludos desde México.

Hi Pills, Having read six books of the Zizek canon, I think your invocation of ‘Overcome’ for Aufhebung is well placed as it subsumes the two meanings of which Zizek uses Aufhebung, in the two senses/meanings he claims it is used in German-obviously specifically in the context of German Idealist philosophy. First it means to explode the parts of a given object, dissecting, isolating and separating these parts from form or meaning as parts of a whole-Such that if they were to take a chair they would remove pieces (legs, backrest, seat) and more radically separate these pieces to the point where they no longer relate to being a whole of the chair (grains of pulp wood). This is the function of a Subject’s theatre of imagination or discerning ‘powers’ as it is given by Hegel as the “Night of the World”; Second it means to ‘find or come to new ground’ which simply means that from the explosion and dissection and with isolating or separating for left brain analysis, that object can be reconstituted and understood granularly. I think the ultimate object for analysis (Aufhebung) is the Subject in Absolute Knowing where he is delineated in space as against an ontological horizon, modernity or late capitalism.

Nice! Keep on keeping on... Post the podcast on the tube of you so that i may transverse my fantasy!!!!

This is a great explaination! I've seen nearly all of Zizeks talks, as i think, he's funny, but maybe, from now on, i'll even understand him! =) I hope, he'll still be funny.. Oo

I came for Zizek but stayed for cute presenter

Every video I hope you make next, are the one’s you make next! Your channel is so Fucken good man I recommend you to most of my mates!

@imnotyourbuddehguy

3 жыл бұрын

Fucking* 😁

Great video! Damn. Made me understand Zizek for the first time. Also made me want to read more. Any book recommendations?

I am a nonuniversity grad who gets my philosophy here and zizek and mark fisher and McGowan. I do read but just saying its nice to hear someone explain it in a voice and in friendly terms. Thank you.

wonderful video pillcrew

Julian de Medeiros suggests Slavoj Zizek is a Hegelian philosopher whose genius is taking concepts from Lacanian psychoanalysis (which is a more extreme version of what Freud started), and applying it to Hegel's speculative idealism.. and then uses examples from movies, politics, to illustrate.

Good value indeed. Thanks!

Great video, you should go over the divide between Zizek and Deleuze!

To quote Adam Curtis' junior-high caliber synthesis of the current moment: "We, too, are trapped in a system. And we cannot see beyond it. But there is more out there." I think a Zizekian addendum to this pithy little quote would be something along the lines of "There is more out there, but we lack specifically the vocabulary to describe it and anything that we DO to move towards it further entrenches capitalism as a system." *sniff* This channel is an absolute gem. Bully for having the sack to make content like this, knowing that only 0.01% of KZread land is going to give a shit.

Excellent video.

Excellent video as always ! You are very good populariser of philosophy and critical theory. I'm promoting your channel to my friends :) Cheers from Zizek's evil neighbor's Croatia :)

Man. I love your brain. Thanks !!

"Doesn't mean don't try" thank u for that. It actually really helped me on a way down day.

Great video as always. I thoroughly enjoy them

Thank you for your hard work and your channel. Your work has definitely helped make 2020 more bearable. Just out of curiosity, you mentioned you have no reason to sell us on Zizek's philosophical project, but do you personally believe in it and think it is the way forward?

Another brilliant video

Great clarification, and I will read "Less Than Nothing" gathering dust on my bookshelf.

I just found this channel. I think Zizek is adorable with his quirks and the way he doesn’t care. If I were to want to rid myself of something to be free, it would be my ego, or part of me that is still a little trapped in others perceptions of me. Freedom from that I know is freedom.

One of the best things on utube all year, nice beads too.

I desperately want that Zizek vs Deleuze video

This is the best Žižek analysis I've ever seen

"I want. a third. PILL"

Yes! Finally! Thank you!

Watching this atuo-generated subtitles and seeing how they transcribe "zizek" and "lacan" every mention is a wild ride. Weirdest part is that they sometimes get it right.

@fabio5286

9 ай бұрын

I died at "ggk"

It's very frustrating to me how philosophy's most praised thinkers are bringing up issues and problems that are perceived to be so incredibly revolutionary and "mind-blowing", when oftentimes these problems have been engaged with at very deep (oftentimes actually deeper) levels already for thousands of years in various traditions across the globe. For example, in the example you give of Zizek's negation of the negation creating a positive that is not an object while remaining distinct and non-relativistic, is basically Zen's "Emptiness" (sans. Śūnyatā शून्यत; jp. Kū 空) as formulated by Dōgen 道元 (1200-1253). Thus it IS possible to find examples of what different thinking would look like about a particular problematic while being outside of our current ideological framework of rational-economic-(neo)-liberal-capitalism. Framing it as "impossible" is just another way to perpetuate Eurocentricism. Sometimes we don't have to create a "whole new thinking", we could also simply be inspired by thinking that's already there that IS genuinely different - i.e. that operates within a radically different set of assumptions. However the Eurocentricism of philosophy is plaguing us to assume that our questions/answers are way more deep and elaborate than what different traditions have come up it, while using powerful mechanisms to ensure that "real thinking" remains confined within the scope of the European way. This leaves meaningful engagements with various traditions of thinking/being laughed at and/or problematized simply on the basis that it's not "Western" (yes, I also hate these labels of "West", "East", etc., but bare with me here - this is a KZread comment after all!). Hwoever when you do engage with these traditions genuinely and THEN read the Kant, Spinoza, Hegel, Heidegger, Lacan, Derrida, etc. of our world, what these philosophers say is a lot less mind-blowing and a lot more like "yeah, some people have figured that shit out thousands/hundreds of years ago AND have actually come up with deeply-thought-of, meaningful, and theory-driven alternatives". Let me preemptively tackle "critical" comments that would try to legitimatize my statement by positing that I don't know what I'm talking about because I'm only fetishistic the "East" by relying on already-commodified versions of "Western Buddhism". Having to constantly face these kinds of criticisms, I'm expected to show that I know what I'm talking about so that my claims that can be taken "more seriously", so let me just say that I am a scholar of the history of Japanese thinking who actually reads, translate, and comments on the original texts written in Classical Japanese and don't rely on secondary accounts/sources... and a scholar that is obviously tired of the Eurocentric orientation of knowledge production and is using your KZread video to make a statement (>_

@4grammaton

3 жыл бұрын

Are you familiar with the Japanese Kyoto School and their critiques of Hegel? I think some of them essentially said a lot of what you just said here.

@4grammaton

3 жыл бұрын

There is a central notion in Hegelian thought (and Zizek's thought by extension) (and in fact is central to European thought in general) that is absent from Zen Buddhism almost by definition, and that is the notion of development/motion. The "negation of negation" is a constant, permanent process of development, it is constant motion. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Shunyata, (空), in Japanese Buddhist thought, is devoid of any particular relation to motion (or non-motion). In fact, I think the Kyoto school's criticism of Hegel actually revolved around this point somewhat - 無 replaces Logos in Zen philosophy. Instead of motion there is "nothingness". However, Western late 19-20th century philosophy was in many instances inspired by Eastern philosophical tradition and Buddhism in particular (Schopenhauer, Husserl). There have been direct parallels drawn between Zen influence and the development of Deconstructionism and other Post-modern (post-structural/post-phenomenological) philosophical movements too. But nobody denies this! It is openly admitted and affirmed! So yes, it is not only true that other philosophical traditions exist that have ideas an equally profound level as Western philosophy, but in fact Western philosophy proudly and openly incorporates them to enrich itself. There is no Eurocentric "exclusion" happening here! And this is where I think Western philosophy nevertheless has an edge over the others, such as Zen Buddhism: it is the ability to absorb radically new concepts into itself, incorporate them into its structure, and produce revolutionary syntheses. This is a fundamental consequence of the centrality of the notion of development/logos/motion in Western thought. It is not just an approach of maintaining an attitude of "equanimity" towards the new and different ideas/phenomena, or treating them as merely dynamic parts of an overall self-contained static totality, like the Dao in Chinese traditional religion, but truly treat them as serious potential competitors and engage with them on an equal footing. I cannot imagine a circumstance under which a practitioner of Zen Buddhism would seriously debate whether Western philosophical ideas could be an alternative to Zen. I don't think such a discussion is possible because within the Buddhist paradigm, Zen is not localised within the realm of relationships between phenomena. There is no possible rejection of Zen, just as there is no possible affirmation of Zen (since neither rejection, nor affirmation, nor both affirmation and rejection , nor neither affirmation nor rejection - the full Nagarjuna's tetralemma) are able to encompass it. There is no lasting synthesis possible under these conditions, only momentary cessation (無心). To me the uniqueness of Western philosophy, especially as espoused by Zizek's thought, is that the dichotomy of the subject/object is NOT overcome by the Subject simply "becoming one" with the object, or by rejecting the dichotomy and denying its existence, or by overcoming/transcending it through 無心, but by the realisation that your *own existence*, *you yourself* ARE the dichotomy. YOU are the rift that appears between your OWN subject and the object. It is radical acceptance, but an acceptance that is SO strong and complete, that it effectively becomes a negation!! And this is a property of reality ITSELF being fundamentally BROKEN at the basic level!!! This is where the "positive that is not an object" comes from: it's a glitch in the system, but a glitch that DEFINES the system itself and thus becomes its foundation! This is where the motion comes from, the negation, the synthesis, all of it. Everything that distinguishes Western thought. This is something that I've never encountered in Japanese Zen Buddhism or anywhere else. Shunyata, 空, does not even begin to come close. In a sense, to me Western philosophy is maybe even more Zen than Japanese Zen itself. Sorry I'm rambling (>__

@jamalcalypse

2 жыл бұрын

It helps to read a thinker that references and grew up in a similar western culture. The unfamiliarity also means someone from the west dipping into eastern thinking won’t know where to start, which authors are worthwhile, etc, so there’s much more filler and woo to tread through. Idk if you’ve been studying for years or were lucky enough to find the right texts, but the majority of people who praise eastern thought I’ve run into don’t have a thorough conceptual understanding as deep as yours. Albeit many aren’t engaging with it to look for bigger philosophical problems but instead answers to guide their life. Because something isn’t new doesn’t mean it’s inherently less valuable than the older alternative, especially across cultural lines. I’ve noticed a lot of similarities as well, and went through that moment thinking “well these western philosophers seem to be repeating ideas from other cultures” (especially the pessimistic “all is suffering” thinkers who sound like Buddhists on the surface). But the western ones I can actually resonate with on some level, the eastern ones I feel like a fraud when reading because I have no cultural context beyond the fetishistic appropriation of it within my own culture. Rather have a parallel development of the same ideas, diversity of perspective. All due respect to eastern philosophy.

@marchdarkenotp3346

2 жыл бұрын

@@4grammaton The real philosophy is, as always, in the comments. Great response!