Slavoj Zizek

The most dangerous philosopher in the West returns with a rousing and counterintuitive analysis of our global predicament. We hear all the time that we're moments from doomsday. Around us, crises interlock and escalate, threatening our collective survival—Russia's invasion of Ukraine, with its rising risk of nuclear warfare, is taking place against a backdrop of global warming, ecological breakdown, and...

Probably the most famous living philosopher, Slavoj Žižek explores the concept of event, in the second book of this new series of easily digestible philosophy. What is really happening when something happens? Here, Slavoj Žižek, one of the world's greatest living philosophers, takes us on a trip which stops at different definitions of event, and addresses fundamental questions such as:...

Violence by Slavoj Zizek delves into the multifaceted nature of violence in our contemporary world, dissecting its visible and invisible forms with penetrating insight. Zizek challenges the conventional understanding of violence by arguing that what we typically perceive as physical violence is merely the most evident manifestation of deeper, systemic violence embedded within our political and economic structures. In his...

The Sublime Object of Ideology by Slavoj Žižek is a groundbreaking work that delves into the intricate relationship between ideology and human agency in the contemporary postmodern world. Žižek dissects the ideological constructs that shape our perceptions of reality, making a compelling case for understanding how societal fantasies of completeness and mechanisms of exclusion operate within human society. Žižek, often...

Contemporary life is defined by excess. There must always be more, there is never enough. We need a surplus to what we need to be able to truly enjoy what we have. Slavoj Žižek’s guide to surplus (and why it’s enjoyable) begins by arguing that what is surplus to our needs is by its very nature unsubstantial and unnecessary. But,...

In the most rigorous articulation of his philosophical system to date, Slavoj Žižek provides nothing short of a new definition of dialectical materialism. In forging this new materialism, Žižek critiques and challenges not only the work of Alain Badiou, Robert Brandom, Joan Copjec, Quentin Meillassoux, and Julia Kristeva (to name but a few), but everything from popular science and quantum...

As an unprecedented global pandemic sweeps the planet, who better than the supercharged Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek to uncover its deeper meanings, marvel at its mind-boggling paradoxes, and speculate on the profundity of its consequences? We live in a moment when the greatest act of love is to stay distant from the object of your affection. When governments renowned for...

The latest analysis from the maverick philosopher on the dark side of technology and power. In recent years, techno-scientific progress has started to utterly transform our world—changing it almost beyond recognition. In this extraordinary new book, renowned philosopher Slavoj Žižek turns to look at the brave new world of Big Tech, revealing how, with each new wave of innovation, we...

Slavoj Žižek gives us a reading of a philosophical giant that changes our way of thinking about the new posthuman era. No ordinary study of Hegel, Hegel in A Wired Brain investigates what he might have had to say about the idea of the 'wired brain' – what happens when a direct link between our mental processes and a digital...

We are all afraid that new dangers pose a threat to our hard-won freedoms, so what deserves attention is precisely the notion of freedom. The concept of freedom is deceptively simple. We think we understand it, but the moment we try and define it, we encounter contradictions. In this new philosophical exploration, Slavoj Žižek argues that the experience of true,...

The concept of disparity has long been a topic of obsession and argument for philosophers, but Slavoj Žižek argues that what disparity and negativity could mean, might mean, and should mean for us and our lives has never been more hotly debated. Disparities explores contemporary 'negative' philosophies, from Catherine Malabou's plasticity, Julia Kristeva's abjection, and Robert Pippin's self-consciousness, to the...

With irrepressible humour, Slavoj Žižek dissects our current political and social climate, discussing everything from Jordan Peterson and sex “unicorns” to Greta Thunberg and Chairman Mao. Taking aim at his enemies on the Left, Right, and Centre, he argues that contemporary society can only be properly understood from a communist standpoint. Why communism? The greater the triumph of global capitalism,...

If we want to be true atheists, do we have to begin with a religious edifice and undermine it from within? Slavoj Žižek has long been a commentator on, and critic of, Christian theology. His preoccupation with Badiou's concept of 'the event' alongside the Pauline thought of the New Testament has led to a decidedly theological turn in his thinking....

Probably the most famous living philosopher on how to end the crisis of capitalism and reimagine communism. There is obviously trouble in the global capitalist paradise. But why do we find it so difficult to imagine a way out of the crisis we're in? It is as if the trouble feeds on itself — the march of capitalism has become...

The maverick philosopher returns to explore today's ideological, political, and economic battles, and asks whether radical change is possible. In these troubled times, even the most pessimistic diagnosis of our future ends with an uplifting hint that things might not be as bad as all that, that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Yet, argues Slavoj Žižek,...

Against Progress invites readers to define 'progress' and stake a claim on the future. Seminal thinker Slavoj Žižek adopts an essayist approach to explore competing visions that shape human possibilities, asking whether things, which have never seemed worse, can indeed get better. What would constitute a better world? And how can we advance amidst the constant challenges posed by doomers,...

We are all afraid that new dangers pose a threat to our hard-won freedoms, so what deserves attention is precisely the notion of freedom. The concept of freedom is deceptively simple. We think we understand it, but the moment we try and define it we encounter contradictions. In this new philosophical exploration, Slavoj Žižek argues that the experience of true,...

The celebrated philosopher returns with a provoking analysis of Europe's crisis. Exposing its real nature, he asks—what is to be done? Today, hundreds of thousands of people, desperate to escape war, violence, and poverty, are crossing the Mediterranean to seek refuge in Europe. Our response, argues Slavoj Žižek, offers two versions of ideological blackmail—either we open our doors as widely...

There should no longer be any doubt: global capitalism is fast approaching its terminal crisis. But if the end of capitalism seems to many like the end of the world, how is it possible for Western society to face up to the end times? In a major new analysis of our global situation, Žižek argues that our collective responses to...

Slavoj Žižek is one of the world’s foremost cultural commentators: a prolific writer and thinker whose vividly adventurous, unorthodox, and wide-ranging writings have won him a unique place as one of the most high-profile thinkers of our time. Covering psychoanalysis, philosophy, and popular culture, and drawing on a heady mix of Marxist politics, Hegelian dialectics, and Lacanian psychoanalysis, the writings...

What do sex doll sales, locust swarms and a wired-brain pig have to do with the coronavirus pandemic? Everything—according to that “Giant of Lubliana,” the inimitable Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek. In this exhilarating sequel to his acclaimed Pandemic!: COVID-19 Shakes the World, Žižek delves into some of the more surprising dimensions of lockdowns, quarantines, and social distancing—and the increasingly unruly...

Contemporary life is defined by excess. There must always be more; there is never enough. We need a surplus to what we need to be able to truly enjoy what we have. Slavoj Žižek’s guide to surplus (and why it’s enjoyable) begins by arguing that what is surplus to our needs is by its very nature unsubstantial and unnecessary. But,...

The essays in Zero Point ask how we distinguish defeat from disaster, and how we confront despair without collapsing into it—questions never more pertinent than the current moment in the wake of electoral victories for authoritarian populists and unceasing news of violent atrocities. The 'zero-point' of the title is ground level, rock bottom, the place to which one retreats and...

Slavoj Žižek is one of the world’s foremost cultural commentators: a prolific writer and thinker, whose adventurous, unorthodox and wide-ranging writings have won him a unique place as one of the most high-profile thinkers of our time. The Universal Exception brings together some of Žižek’s most vivid writings on politics. Bringing together high theory, popular culture and passionate engagement with...

A panoramic view of the cosmos must begin with the tension of a single political moment. In Quantum History, Slavoj Žižek brings together Hegelian dialectics, Lacan psychoanalysis and quantum mechanics to rethink history, reality and political possibility.Taking up Lenin’s challenge to radically reconsider materialism in the wake of each big scientific discovery, and rejecting the recent vogue for giving a...

The feature which distinguishes the great works of materialist thought, from Lucretius' De rerum natura through Capital to the writings of Lacan, is their unfinished character: again and again they tackle their chosen problem. Schelling's Weltalter drafts belong to this same series, with their repeated attempt at the formulation of the "beginning of the world," of the passage from the...

Antigone is universally celebrated as the ultimate figure of ethical resistance to the state power which oversteps its legitimate scope and as the defender of simple human dignity, more important than all political struggles. But is she really so innocent and pure? What if there is a dark side to her? What if Creon, the representative of state power, also...

A spirit is haunting contemporary thought – the spirit of Hegel. All the powers of academia have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spirit: Vitalists and Eschatologists, Transcendental Pragmatists and Speculative Realists, Historical Materialists and even liberal Hegelians. Which of these groups has not been denounced as metaphysically Hegelian by its opponents? And which has not hurled back...

One of the signal features of our era is the re-emergence of the 'sacred' in all its different guises, from New Age paganism to the emerging religious sensitivity within cultural and political theory. The wager of Zizek's The Fragile Absolute—published here with a new preface by the author—is that Christianity and Marxism can fight together against the contemporary onslaught of...

From cyberspace reason to the paradox that is Western Buddhism, On Belief gets behind the contours of the way we normally think about belief, in particular Judaism and Christianity. Holding up the so-called authenticity of religious belief to critical light, Žižek draws on psychoanalysis, film and philosophy to reveal in startling fashion that nothing could be worse for believers than...

With an apparently contradictory and characteristically makeshift term, ‘Liberal Fascisms’, Slavoj Žižek captures the paradoxical nature of political populism. To see this phenomenon as purely liberal and dictatorially fascistic is to expose liberalism and fascism as two sides of the same coin. The concept offers a glimpse into the murky landscape of half-lies and double-truths that Žižek enters in this...

No other Marxist text has come close to achieving the fame and influence of The Communist Manifesto. Translated into over 100 languages, this clarion call to the workers of the world radically shaped the events of the twentieth century. But what relevance does it have for us today? In this slim book, Slavoj Zizek argues that, while exploitation no longer...

Slavoj Žižek, dubbed by the Village Voice "the giant of Ljubljana", returns with a new edition of his seriously entertaining book on film, psychoanalysis, and life. His inimitable blend of philosophical and social theory, Lacanian analysis, and outrageous humour demonstrates how Hollywood movies can explain psychoanalysis—and vice versa. In Enjoy Your Symptom!, Žižek explores the intersection of cinema and psychoanalytic...

The title is just the first of many startling asides, observations and insights that fill this guide to Hollywood on the Lacanian psychoanalyst’s couch. Zizek introduces the ideas of Jacques Lacan through the medium of American film, taking his examples from over 100 years of cinema, from Charlie Chaplin to The Matrix and referencing along the way such figures as...

Slavoj Zizek's passionate defence of Lacan reasserts the ethical urgency of psychoanalysis. Traditionally, psychoanalysis was expected to allow the patient to overcome the obstacles which prevented access to 'normal' sexual enjoyment; today, however, we are bombarded from all sides by different versions of the injunction 'Enjoy!' Lacan reminds us that psychoanalysis is the only discourse in which you are allowed...