Objective Fictions: Philosophy, Psychoanalysis, Marxism - Paperback

by Adrian Johnston (Editor), Bostjan Nedoh (Editor), Alenka Zupančič (Editor)

This collection rethinks the relationship between objectivity and fiction through a series of 'objective fictions', such as fetishes, semblances, lies, rumours, sophistry, fantasies and conspiracy theories. It engages with modern and contemporary philosophical traditions and psychoanalytic theory, with all of these orientations being irreducible to either nominalist or realist approaches. The contributors are a mix of renowned thinkers and thinkers from the new generation, including Slavoj Zizek, Mladen Dolar, Frank Ruda and Samo Tomsič.

Back Jacket

Rethinking objectivity and fiction in contemporary philosophy and psychoanalysis - beyond the realism-nominalism divide When it comes to the question of objectivity in current philosophical debates, there is a growing prominence of two opposite approaches: nominalism and realism. By absolutising intersubjectivity, the nominalist approach is moving towards the abandonment of the very notion of truth and objective reality. For its part, the realist approach insists on the category of the object-in-itself as irreducible to any kind of subjective mediation. Despite their seeming mutual exclusiveness, both approaches share a fundamental presupposition, namely, that of a neat separation between the spheres of subjectivity and objectivity as well as between fiction and truth. This collection offers a rethinking of the relationship between objectivity and fiction through engaging with a series of 'objective fictions', including such topics as fetishes, semblances, lies, rumours, sophistry, fantasies and conspiracy theories. It does so through engagement with modern and contemporary philosophical traditions and psychoanalytic theory, with all of these orientations being irreducible to either nominalist or realist approaches. Adrian Johnston is Distinguished Professor and Chair at the Department of Philosophy, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, USA. Bostjan Nedoh is a Research Fellow at the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Institute of Philosophy, Ljubljana, Slovenia. Alenka Zupančič is a Research Advisor at the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Institute of Philosophy, Ljubljana, Slovenia, and Professor at the European Graduate School, Saas-Fee, Switzerland.

Author Biography

Adrian Johnston is Distinguished Professor and Chair at the Department of Philosophy, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, USA. He is the author of Time Driven (2005), Zizek's Ontology (2008), Badiou, Zizek, and Political Transformations (2009), and Prolegomena to Any Future Materialism, Volume One (2013), all published by Northwestern University Press. He is the co-author, with Catherine Malabou, of Self and Emotional Life (Columbia University Press, 2013).

Bostjan Nedoh is a Research Fellow at the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Institute of Philosophy, Ljubljana, Slovenia. He has published extensively on Lacanian psychoanalysis, Italian biopolitical theory and contemporary French philosophy.

Alenka Zupančič is a Research Advisor at the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Institute of Philosophy, Ljubljana, Slovenia, and Professor at the European Graduate School, Saas-Fee, Switzerland.