Cogito And The Unconscious

From No Subject - Encyclopedia of Psychoanalysis
Jump to: navigation, search

Cogito and the Unconscious - Slavoj Zizek, Sina K. Najafi

Slavoj Zizek, Sina K. Najafi

Author: Slavoj Zizek
File type: pdf
Series: Series: SIC 2
Publisher: Duke University Press Books
Year: 1998
Language: English
ISBN: 0822320975,9780822320975,0822320835,9780822320838
Time Added: Wed Feb 13 2019 13:57:04 GMT+0300 (MSK)
Author: Slavoj Zizek
File type: pdf
Size: 7 mb
City:
Pages: 283
Id: 397811
Time Modified: Wed Feb 13 2019 13:57:04 GMT+0300 (MSK)
Extension: pdf
Bibtex: "Slavoj Zizek and Sina K. Najafi",
"Cogito and the Unconscious "


The Cartesian cogito?the principle articulated by Descartes that I think, therefore I am?is often hailed as the precursor of modern science. At the same time, the cogito's agent, the ego, is sometimes feared as the agency of manipulative domination responsible for all present woes, from patriarchal oppression to ecological catastrophes. Without psychoanalyzing philosophy, Cogito and the Unconscious</I> explores the vicissitudes of the cogito and shows that psychoanalyses can render visible a constitutive madness within modern philosophy, the point at which I think, therefore I am becomes obsessional neurosis characterized by If I stop thinking, I will cease to exist. Noting that for Lacan the Cartesian construct is the same as the Freudian subject of the unconscious, the contributors follow Lacan's plea for a psychoanalytic return to the cogito. Along the path of this return, they examine the ethical attitude that befits modern subjectivity, the inherent sexualization of modern subjectivity, the impasse in which the Cartesian project becomes involved given the enigmatic status of the human body, and the Cartesian subject's confrontation with its modern critics, including Althusser, Bataille, and Dennett. In a style that has become familiar to Zizek's readers, these essays bring together a strict conceptual analysis and an approach to a wide range of cultural and ideological phenomena?from the sadist paradoxes of Kant's moral philosophy to the universe of Ayn Rand's novels, from the question Which, if any, is the sex of the cogito? to the defense of the cogito against the onslaught of cognitive sciences. Challenging us to reconsider fundamental notions of human consciousness and modern subjectivity, this is a book whose very Lacanian orthodoxy makes it irreverently transgressive of predominant theoretical paradigms. Cogito and the Unconscious</I> will appeal to readers interested in philosophy, psychoanalysis, cultural studies, and theories of ideology.

Contributors. </I>Miran Bozovic, Mladen Dolar, Alain Grosrichard, Marc de Kessel, Robert Pfaller, Renata Salecl, Slavoj Zizek, Alenka Zupancic