http://zizekstudies.org/index.php/IJZS/issue/feedInternational Journal of Žižek Studies2024-03-27T09:04:21-04:00Paul TaylorP.A.Taylor@leeds.ac.ukOpen Journal SystemsThe International Journal of Žižek Studies is an academic journal devoted to the study of Slavoj Žižek's work from a wide range of scholarly perspectives.http://zizekstudies.org/index.php/IJZS/article/view/1256The Promise of Ideo-logic, the Psycho-Epistemic Organization of Socio-Symbolic Systems2024-03-27T09:01:28-04:00Piercosma Biscontipiercosma.bisconti@dexai.euValeria Cesaronival.cesaroni@gmail.com<div><p>The aim of this work is to develop a comparative analysis of the discursive structures that underlie the socialized formation of the interpretative paradigms of reality. We analyse how both political ideologies and the so-called “conspiracy theories” can be understood starting from the structure and functioning of Marc Augè's <em>ideo-logic</em>, namely the systemic-discursive device that defines the field of all possible sentences defining the real.</p></div>2024-03-27T09:01:28-04:00Copyright (c) 2024 Piercosma Bisconti, Valeria Cesaronihttp://zizekstudies.org/index.php/IJZS/article/view/1254Horrorshow - Violence in Politics2024-03-27T09:01:28-04:00Michael Chisnallmick.chisnall@canberra.edu.au<div class="page" title="Page 2"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span>This article is a cross-disciplinary investigation into the role of political violence, in the present era, from a progressive’s viewpoint. Starting from the view that explanations of the rapidly changing politics in the West must take account of an often unconscious, emotional landscape, it invokes Lacanian concepts and artistic representations, including references to Anthony Burgess’s classic novel of dystopian ultra-violence, </span><span>A Clockwork Orange. </span><span>Here, I review a long history of the enjoyment of violent performance in politics, from the arenas of Ancient Rome to extremist right-wing websites. Along the way, we hear from neo-Nazis, political activists, stand-up comedians, satirists and philosophers. My aim to prevent an increasingly polarised society descending further into authoritarianism and eventually outright warfare, provokes a surprising final reversal: resistance, sometimes violent (both to self and others) must be protected, in order to lead progressives to those “excluded” from our </span><span>demos </span><span>and towards what Connolly (2017) refers to as “multifaceted democracy”. </span></p></div></div></div>2024-03-27T09:01:28-04:00Copyright (c) 2024 Michael Chisnallhttp://zizekstudies.org/index.php/IJZS/article/view/1258History and Contingency: A Transcendental-Materialist Approach2024-03-27T09:01:28-04:00M.D. Collettmarkddcollett@hotmail.co.uk<p>How ought the historian to reconcile themselves philosophically with the fact of evental contingency and of its relationship to structural determination? Does the existence of contingent causation undermine the very concept of historical necessity, or do the two instead in dialectical entanglement? In this essay, I engage with the problem of historical contingency from a transcendental-materialist perspective informed by the work of Slavoj Žižek, tendering a philosophically serious response to the famous Pascalian conundrum of Cleopatra’s nose and its challenge to structuralist accounts of historical causation. The position associated with Laplace – that is to say, that the course of history would be entirely predictable were one provided with a complete account of initial conditions – is firmly rejected. Instead, I revive Althusser’s attempt to craft a theory of ‘aleatory materialism’, in which the determinative power of structural forces nevertheless leave space for the radical and unpredictable transformation of a situation by the chance crystallisation of events and encounters. In this effort, I recruit conceptual architecture not only from the fields of historiography and philosophy, but also quantum physics, psychoanalysis, and mathematics.</p>2024-03-27T09:01:28-04:00Copyright (c) 2024 M.D. Colletthttp://zizekstudies.org/index.php/IJZS/article/view/1261Reading Rousseau with Žižek. The Contract, the Lawmaker and the Contradictions of the Social Contract2024-03-27T09:01:28-04:00Andreas Beck Holmanbh@cas.au.dkJean-Jacques Rousseau's main work in political philosophy, the <em>Social Contract</em>, contains two beginnings; on the one hand, it commences, quite conventionally, with a social contract between individuals, on the other hand it also states that a lawmaker needs to precede the agreement of such a contract. This curious co-existence of two beginnings in the text has usually been ignored or played down by interpreters. This article, on the other hand, presents a reading of their interplay inspired by Zizek's theory of ideology. It demonstrates how one of the beginnings, if seen from this point of view, may be understood as the truth about the other, and how the figure of the lawmaker specifically reveals the text as torn apart by contradictory internal tendencies.2024-03-27T09:01:28-04:00Copyright (c) 2024 Andreas Beck Holmhttp://zizekstudies.org/index.php/IJZS/article/view/1255Ownership is transfer - infinite judgement or syllogism -2024-03-27T09:01:29-04:00Kazuyuki ikko Takahashiikko@meiji.ac.jp<p>Hegel, in his work <em>Philosophy of Right</em>, defines ownership through three elements: acquisition by occupation, use, and transfer. To own something involves mere acquisition and encompasses its appropriate use and potential transfer to others.</p><p>Subsequently, the final aspect mentioned was the concept of infinite judgement. The acts of owning and transferring to others are diametrically opposed, and Hegel’s unique logic forcibly connects these opposing concepts.</p><p>This form of infinite judgement was advocated by the young Hegel during the era of <em>Phenomenology of Spirit</em>. There, he stated, “Spirit is a bone”. However, when he later wrote <em>Science of Logic</em> or <em>Encyclopedia</em>, the formulation of infinite judgement changed to “Spirit is not something that is bone”. This shift was influenced by Kant. In <em>Logic</em>, the discourse advances into syllogism, inferential theory, leading to “Spirit is a bone for such-and-such reasons”. In essence, Hegel binarily connected spirit and bone in his youth and introduced a mediating term in this connection later in his life, establishing inferential links. However, the notion of forcibly connecting opposing concepts remains.</p><p>Therefore, the statement “Ownership is transfer” represents an infinite judgement while simultaneously signifying syllogism that “I truly own this object if I can transfer it to others”. This contributes to the reasoning that “I and objects can be connected through the intermediary of others”, progressing to the inference that “I and others can be connected through objects”, thereby laying the foundation for society.</p>2024-03-27T09:01:29-04:00Copyright (c) 2024 Kazuyuki ikko Takahashihttp://zizekstudies.org/index.php/IJZS/article/view/1262Europe's Malignant Supplements, I Know. But Nevertheless…2024-03-27T09:01:29-04:00Imanol Galfarsorodummyauthor@gmail.com<h2 class="western" style="margin-left: 1.25cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Th</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">is discussion review appeals to a minimal militant comradeship across struggles. Theory is also a struggle, and solidarity is always key. It agrees with Slavoj Žižek’s main argument: the critique of Eurocentrism cannot sustain itself without acknowledging the positive influence of the Enlightenment radical tradition. It also underlines that particular emancipatory projects set against universalism fail to properly problematise political subjectivity. This is not to coalesce with certain Western/European metropolitan intellectual and political inclinations, not least in the Left, particularly prone to lay down the correct and rightful terms of anybody else’s struggles. Various examples from different historic and contemporary contexts illustrate and clarify this point. In the process, some hints are also given on possible theoretical and political reconciliations between Decolonial Theory and the Idea of Communism or between Žižek’s “possibilism” and Alain Badiou’s politics of the impossibl</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">e.</span></span></h2>2024-03-27T09:01:29-04:00Copyright (c) 2024 Imanol Galfarsorohttp://zizekstudies.org/index.php/IJZS/article/view/1249Dark Academia: A Reply to Elias Khoury2024-03-27T09:01:29-04:00Marc James Légerleger.mj@gmail.com<p>Author Marc James Léger responds to Elias Khoury’s review of his book <em>Bernie Bros Gone Woke: Class, Identity, Neoliberalism</em>, which was published in volume 17 of the <em>International Journal of </em><em>Žižek Studies</em>. While Léger accepts the one mistake in the book that Khoury correctly identifies, he takes issue with nearly everything else in Khoury’s review, which involves fallacies, misquotations, reductive arguments, misdirection and failure to mention anything that would contradict Khoury’s generally false claims. Léger describes the possibility of academic foul play in the context of a public secret directed against him and that he has been struggling against since the late 1990s. </p>2024-03-27T09:01:29-04:00Copyright (c) 2024 Marc James Léger