Prolegomena to Any Future Materialism: The Outcome of Contemporary French Philosophy

276 Pages·2013·8.58 MB·English

by  Adrian Johnston

PROLEGOMENA TO ANY FUTURE MATERIALISM
Series Editors
Slavoj Zizek
Adrian Johnston
Todd McGowan
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PR.OLEGOMENA TO
ANY FUTURE
MATERIALISM
Volume One: The Outcome of
Contemporary French Philosophy
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Adrian
Northwestern University Press
Evanston, Illinois
35 8 5 5 '0 4
Northwestern University Press
www.nupress.northwestern.edu
Copyright© 2013 by Northwestern University Press. Published 2013. All rights
reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress C~taloging-in-Publication Data
Johnston, Adrian, 1974-
Prolegomena to any future materialism. Volume one, The outcome of
contemporary French philosophy I Adrian Johnston.
p. cm. - (Diaeresis)
"The present book is the first volume of a trilogy entitled Prolegomena
to Any Future Materialism, to be followed by A Weak Nature Alone and
Substance Also as Subject."
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8101-2912-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)
I. Materialism. 2. Philosophy, French-20th century. 3. Lacan,Jacques,
1901-1981. 4. Badiou, Alain. 5. Meillassoux, Quentin, 1967-I. Title. II. Title:
Outcome of contemporary French philosophy. III. Series: Diaeresis.
Bl809.M3J64 2013
146.3-dc23
2012049692
@ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the
American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
To Ezra; the gift of joyful beginnings

It has been rumored round the town that I have compared
the stars to a rash on an organism where the skin erupts into
a countless mass of red spots; or to an ant-heap in which, too,
there is Understanding and necessity ... In fact I do rate what
is concrete higher than what is abstract, and an animality that
develops into no more than a slime, higher than the starry host.
-G. W. F. Hegel

Contents
Preface
Clearing the Ground: The First Volume of Prolegomena to Any
Future Materialism xi
Acknowledgments xvii
Introduction
"One Surely Will Be Found One Day to Make an Ontology with
What I Am Telling You": The Road to a Post-Lacanian Materialism 3
Part 1. Jacques Lacan: Between the Sacred and the Secular
Conflicted Matter: The Challenge of Secularizing Materialism 13
2 Turning the Sciences Inside Out: Revisiting "Science and Truth" 39
3 On Deep History and Psychoanalysis: Phylogenetic Time in
Lacanian Theory 59
Part 2. Alain Badiou: Between Form and Matter
4 What Matter(s) in Ontology: The Hebb-Event and Materialism
Split from Within 81
5 Phantom of Consistency: Kant Troubles 108
Part 3. Quentin Meillassoux: Between Faith and Knowledge
6 The World Before Worlds: The Ancestral and Badiou's Anti-Kantian
Transcendentalism 131
7 Hume's Revenge: A Dieu, Meillassoux? 148
Postface
From Critique to Construction: Toward a Transcendental Materialism 175