Parallax

Parallax, or the change in the position of an object viewed along two different lines of sight—and more precisely, the assumption that this adjustment is not only due to a change of focus, but a change in that object’s ontological status—has been a key philosophical concept throughout history.

Building upon Slavoj Žižek’s The Parallax View, this volume shows how parallax is used as a figure of thought that demonstrates the incompatibility between the physical and the theoretical, impacting not only ontology but also politics and aesthetics. With contributions from internationally renowned philosophers such as Frank Ruda, Graham Harman, Paul Livingston, and Žižek himself, this book illustrates how modes of parallax persist in numerous modern theoretical disciplines.

The Marxian parallax is explored in the critique of political economy and politics, while the Hegelian parallax is examined in the concept of the work of art. This notion is also pertinent to debates surrounding speculative realism and dialectical materialism. Spanning the field of philosophy, parallax is revealed to be a rich and fruitful concept that can illuminate studies for those engaged in epistemology, ontology, German Idealism, political philosophy, and critical theory.