Table Of Content

c Adrian Johnston Q A New German Idealism B B ' HEGEL, ŽIŽEK, AND DIALECTICAL MATERIALISM A New German Idealism A NEW GERMAN IDEALISM Hegel, Žižek, and Dialectical Materialism ADRIAN JOHNSTON COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS NEW YORK Columbia University Press Publishers Since 1893 New York Chichester, West Sussex cup .columbia .edu Copyright © 2018 Columbia University Press All rights reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Johnston, Adrian, 1974– author. Title: A new German idealism: Hegel, Zizek, and dialectical materialism / Adrian Johnston. Description: New York: Columbia University Press, 2018. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017052046 | ISBN 9780231183949 (cloth: alk. paper) | ISBN 9780231545242 (e-book) Subjects: LCSH: Dialectical materialism. | Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 1770–1831. | Zizek, Slavoj. Classification: LCC B809.82.G3 J64 2018 | DDC 199/.4973—dc22 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017052046 Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid-free paper. Printed in the United States of America Cover image: Chronicle / Alamy Stock Photo To S.—for pushing me Nature should not be rated too high nor too low . . . awakening consciousness takes its rise surrounded by natural influences alone (nur in der Natur), and every development of it is the reflec- tion of Spirit back upon itself in opposition to the immediate, unreflected character of mere nature. Nature is therefore one element in this antithetic abstracting process; Nature is the first standpoint from which man can gain freedom within himself, and this liberation must not be rendered difficult by natural obstructions. Nature, as contrasted with Spirit, is a quantitative mass, whose power must not be so great as to make its single force omnipotent (allmächtig). —G. W. F. Hegel When will all these shadows of God cease to darken our minds? When will we complete our de-deification of nature? When may we begin to “naturalize” humanity in terms of a pure, newly discovered, newly redeemed nature? —Friedrich Nietzsche Contents Preface: Drawing Lines—Žižek’s Speculative Dialectics xi Acknowledgments xxxv Introduction: Sublating Absolute Idealism—Žižekian Materialist Reversals 1 one “Freedom or System? Yes, Please!”: Spinozisms of Freedom and the Post-Kantian Aftermath Then and Now 11 two Where to Start?: Deflating Hegel’s Deflators 38 three Contingency, Pure Contingency—Without Any Further Determination: Hegelian Modalities 74 four Materialism Sans Materialism: Žižekian Substance Deprived of Its Substance 129 five Bartleby by Nature: German Idealism, Biology, and Žižek’s Compatibilism 151 Conclusion: Driven On—the (Meta)Dialectics of Drive and Desire 187 [ ix ]