The Indivisible Remainder: An Essay on Schelling and Related Matters [Paperback]

Slavoj Zizek (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1859840949 | ISBN-13: 978-1859840948 | Publication Date: December 1996

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 pre-symbolic pulsation of the Real to the universe of logos. F.W.J. Schelling, the German idealist who for too long dwelled in the shadow of Kant and Hegel, was the first to formulate the post-idealist motifs of finitude, contingency and temporality. His unique work announces Marx's critique of speculative idealism, as well as the properly Freudian notion of drive, of a blind compulsion to repeat which can never be sublated in the ideal medium of language. The Indivisible Remainder begins with a detailed examination of the two works in which Schelling's speculative audacity reached its peak: his essay on human freedom and his drafts on the "Ages of the World." After reconstituting their line of argumentation, Slavoj Zizek confronts Schelling with Hegel, and concludes by throwing a Schellingian light on some "related matters": the consequences of the computerization of daily life for sexual experience; cynicism as today's predominant form of ideology; the epistemological deadlocks of quantum physics. Although the book is packed with examples from politics and popular culture -- the unmistakable token of Zizek's style -- from Speed and Groundhog Day to Forrest Gump, it signals a major shift towards a systematic concern with the basic questions of philosophy and the roots of the crisis of our late-capitalist universe, centred around the enigma of modern subjectivity.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Slavoj Zizek is a researcher at the Institute for Sociology and Philosophy in Ljubljana, Slovenia. His books include The Sublime Object of Ideology, For They Know Not What They Do, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Lacan (But Were Afraid to Ask Hitchcock), Enjoy Your Symptom! and The Metastases of Enjoyment, He is the editor of Verso's Wo es War series.

Product Details

• Paperback: 248 pages
• Publisher: Verso Books (December 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1859840949
• ISBN-13: 978-1859840948
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,784,293 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

"The most dangerous philosopher in the West," (says Adam Kirsch of The New Republic) Slavoj Zizek is a Slovenian philosopher and cultural critic. He is a professor at the European Graduate School, International Director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, Birkbeck College, University of London, and a senior researcher at the Institute of Sociology, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. His books include "First as Tragedy, Then as Farce;" "Iraq: The Borrowed Kettle;" "In Defense of Lost Causes;" "Living in the End Times;" and many more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The One That No One Reads, March 21, 2006

By 

Adam J. Kotsko (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Indivisible Remainder: An Essay on Schelling and Related Matters (Paperback)

I highly recommend reading this very interesting book, particularly if you are interested in German Idealism.

But even if you don't, make sure to remember that this book exists. That way, if Zizek ever comes up at a dinner party, you can say, "Well, I liked his book on Schelling." It works every time -- you look like you're exceptionally erudite, and no one will call you on it.