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

Laffer curve (en)

a theory developed by supply-side economist Arthur Laffer to show the relationship between tax rates and the amount of tax revenue collected by governments (a typically conservative theory that believes that too much taxation will depress business investment)

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"?

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"?

misprision (en)

(noun; historical; law) the deliberate concealment of one's knowledge of a treasonable act or a felony; (literary) Harold Bloom's term for when strong writers misinterpret their literary predecessors so as to clear imaginative space for themselves

morass (en)

(noun) marsh swamp / (noun) a situation that traps, confuses, or impedes / (noun) an overwhelming or confusing mass or mixture

mutatis mutandis (la)

a Medieval Latin phrase meaning "the necessary changes having been made" or "once the necessary changes have been made"

neoliberalism (en)

the postulate that markets are organised most effectively by private enterprise and that the private pursuit of accumulation will generate the most common good; accomplished by opening international markets and financial networks, and downsizing the welfare state

neoliberalism (en)

the postulate that markets are organised most effectively by private enterprise and that the private pursuit of accumulation will generate the most common good; accomplished by opening international markets and financial networks, and downsizing the welfare state

nomenklatura (en)

a category of people within the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries who held various key administrative positions in the bureaucracy running all spheres of those countries' activity

nomenklatura (en)

a category of people within the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries who held various key administrative positions in the bureaucracy running all spheres of those countries' activity

nomenklatura (en)

a category of people within the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries who held various key administrative positions in the bureaucracy running all spheres of those countries' activity

noumenal (en)

(noun) a posited object or event as it appears in itself independent of perception by the senses

ontology (en)

(noun) a branch of metaphysics concerned with the nature and relations of being / (noun) a particular theory about the nature of being or the kinds of things that have existence

panegyric (en)

(noun) a eulogistic oration or writing / (noun) formal or elaborate praise

passage à l'acte (fr)

(psychology) Impulsive acting out; term used by Lacan

passage à l'acte (fr)

(psychology) Impulsive acting out; term used by Lacan

Paulinian (en)

referring to the Pauli exclusion principle (the assertion that no two fermions can have the same quantum number)

Paulinian (en)

referring to the Pauli exclusion principle (the assertion that no two fermions can have the same quantum number)

phatic (en)

(adjective) of, relating to, or being speech used for social or emotive purposes rather than for communicating information

plebiscite (en)

(noun) a vote by which the people of an entire country or district express an opinion for or against a proposal especially on a choice of government or ruler

propitiate (en)

(verb) to gain or regain the favor or goodwill of; appease

prosopopoeia (en)

a figure of speech in which an abstract thing is personified OR an imagined or absent person or thing is represented as speaking (literally, "mask-making")

prosopopoeia (en)

a figure of speech in which an abstract thing is personified OR an imagined or absent person or thing is represented as speaking (literally, "mask-making")

rarefied (en)

(adjective) being less dense / (adjective) of, relating to, or interesting to a select group; esoteric / (adjective) very high / (verb) to make rare, thin, porous, or less dense; to expand without the addition of matter / (verb) to make more spiritual, refined, or abstruse / (verb) to become less dense