by
Slavoj Žižek
master signifier
(en)
a Lacanian term (following the linguistics of Saussure); really just another signifier (i.e., something that organises discursive structures) but one which stops the slippage of the signified under the signifier and fixes meaning, thereby forming a stable symbolic order. i don't really know tbh. a platonic ideal of a concept like "freedom" or "health"?
30
A basic feature of our postmodern world is that it tries to dispense with this agency of the ordering Master- Signifier: the complexity of the world needs to be as serted unconditionally. Every Master-Signifier meant to impose some order on it must be deconstructed, dis persed
notable
9 years, 1 month ago
A basic feature of our postmodern world is that it tries to dispense with this agency of the ordering Master- Signifier: the complexity of the world needs to be as serted unconditionally. Every Master-Signifier meant to impose some order on it must be deconstructed, dis persed
notable
9 years, 1 month ago
superego
(en)
ethical component of the personality and provides the moral standards by which the ego operates (acc to Sigmund Freud)
30
Houellebecq depicts the morning-after of the Sexual Revolution, the sterility of a universe dominated by the superego injunction to enjoy.
notable
9 years, 1 month ago
Houellebecq depicts the morning-after of the Sexual Revolution, the sterility of a universe dominated by the superego injunction to enjoy.
notable
9 years, 1 month ago
mutatis mutandis
(la)
a Medieval Latin phrase meaning "the necessary changes having been made" or "once the necessary changes have been made"
31
Mutatis mutandis, the same holds for violence.
confirm
9 years, 1 month ago
Mutatis mutandis, the same holds for violence.
confirm
9 years, 1 month ago
biopolitics
(en)
biopolitics: a term defined by Foucault (though not first) as the style of government that regulates populations through "biopower" (the application and impact of political power on all aspects of human life)
34
'bio-politics' designates the regulation of the security and welfare of human lives as its primary goal
notable
9 years, 1 month ago
'bio-politics' designates the regulation of the security and welfare of human lives as its primary goal
notable
9 years, 1 month ago
Byronesque
(en)
reminiscent of the works of George Gordon Byron, typified by gloomy Romantic themes and passionate, arrogant and self-destructive heroes
40
these figures were not personifications of sublime Byronesque demonic evil: the gap between their intimate experience and the horror of their acts was immense
confirm
9 years, 1 month ago
these figures were not personifications of sublime Byronesque demonic evil: the gap between their intimate experience and the horror of their acts was immense
confirm
9 years, 1 month ago
panegyric
(en)
(noun) a eulogistic oration or writing / (noun) formal or elaborate praise
41
the official reports from the show trials, the attacks on enemies, the official panegyrics to Stalin and other leaders
confirm
9 years, 1 month ago
the official reports from the show trials, the attacks on enemies, the official panegyrics to Stalin and other leaders
confirm
9 years, 1 month ago
Habermasian
(en)
referring to Frankfurt School sociologist and philosopher Jürgen Habermas, best known for his theories on communicative rationality and the public sphere
41
To put it in Habermasian terms, they are involved in a pragmatic contradiction, since they violate the ethical norms which sustain their own speech community.
unknown
9 years, 1 month ago
To put it in Habermasian terms, they are involved in a pragmatic contradiction, since they violate the ethical norms which sustain their own speech community.
unknown
9 years, 1 month ago
Gilles Deleuze
(en)
1925–1995: French philosopher (has influenced literary theory, post-structuralism and postmodernism)
42
a more Deleuzian notion of a contingent series intersecting and generating totally disparate meanings
notable
9 years, 1 month ago
a more Deleuzian notion of a contingent series intersecting and generating totally disparate meanings
notable
9 years, 1 month ago
consubstantial
(en)
(adjective) of the same substance
46
What if such an exclusion of some form of otherness from the scope of our ethical concerns is consubstantial with the very founding gesture of ethical universality
confirm
9 years, 1 month ago
What if such an exclusion of some form of otherness from the scope of our ethical concerns is consubstantial with the very founding gesture of ethical universality
confirm
9 years, 1 month ago
jouissance
(fr)
physical or intellectual pleasure, delight, or ecstasy; the concept featured heavily in the psychoanalysis of Jacques Lacan's and was expanded on by Roland Barthes for literary theory, to contrast with mere "pleasure" derived from reading texts that don't challenge the reader as a subject. can also refer to pleasure that devolves into pain
49
Why the need to decaffeinate the Other, to deprive him or her of their raw substance of jouissance?
notable
9 years, 1 month ago
Why the need to decaffeinate the Other, to deprive him or her of their raw substance of jouissance?
notable
9 years, 1 month ago