The Parallax View

Slavoj Zizek

ISBN 10: 0262512688 / ISBN 13: 9780262512688

Published by MIT Press Apr 2009, 2009

About this Item

Neuware - In i ek's long-awaited magnum opus, he theorizes the 'parallax gap' in the ontological, the scientific, and the political and rehabilitates dialectical materialism.The Parallax View is Slavoj i ek's most substantial theoretical work to appear in many years; i ek himself describes it as his magnum opus. Parallax can be defined as the apparent displacement of an object, caused by a change in observational position. i ek is interested in the 'parallax gap' separating two points between which no synthesis or mediation is possible, linked by an 'impossible short circuit' of levels that can never meet. From this consideration of parallax, i ek begins a rehabilitation of dialectical materialism.Modes of parallax can be seen in different domains of today's theory, from the wave-particle duality in quantum physics to the parallax of the unconscious in Freudian psychoanalysis between interpretations of the formation of the unconscious and theories of drives. In The Parallax View, i ek, with his usual astonishing erudition, focuses on three main modes of parallax: the ontological difference, the ultimate parallax that conditions our very access to reality; the scientific parallax, the irreducible gap between the phenomenal experience of reality and its scientific explanation, which reaches its apogee in today's brain sciences (according to which 'nobody is home' in the skull, just stacks of brain meat a condition i ek calls 'the unbearable lightness of being no one'); and the political parallax, the social antagonism that allows for no common ground. Between his discussions of these three modes, i ek offers interludes that deal with more specific topics including an ethical act in a novel by Henry James and anti-anti-Semitism.The Parallax View not only expands i ek's Lacanian-Hegelian approach to new domains (notably cognitive brain sciences) but also provides the systematic exposition of the conceptual framework that underlies his entire work. Philosophical and theological analysis, detailed readings of literature, cinema, and music coexist with lively anecdotes and obscene jokes. Seller Inventory # 9780262512688

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Parallax View

Publisher: MIT Press Apr 2009

Publication Date: 2009

Binding: Taschenbuch

Condition: Neu

About this title

Synopsis:

In Žižek's long-awaited magnum opus, he theorizes the "parallax gap" in the ontological, the scientific, and the political—and rehabilitates dialectical materialism.

About the Author:

Slavoj Zizek, a philosopher and cultural critic, is Senior Researcher in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Ljubljana, Global Distinguished Professor of German at New York University, and International Director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London. He is the author of more than thirty books, including Looking Awry: An Introduction to Jacques Lacan through Popular Culture, The Puppet and the Dwarf: The Perverse Core of Christianity, The Parallax View, The Monstrosity of Christ: Paradox or Dialectic (with John Milbank), and Zizek's Jokes (Did you hear the one about Hegel and negation?), these five published by the MIT Press.