Ontological Catastrophe: Zizek and the Paradoxical Metaphysics of German Idealism

By Joseph Carew

Book Overview

In Ontological Catastrophe, Joseph Carew takes up the central question guiding Slavoj Zizek philosophy: How could something like phenomenal reality emerge out of the meaninglessness of the Real? Carefully reconstructing and expanding upon his controversial reactualization of German Idealism, Carew argues that Zizek offers us an original, but perhaps terrifying, response: experience is possible only if we presuppose a prior moment of breakdown as the ontogenetic basis of subjectivity. Drawing upon resources found in Zizek, Lacanian psychoanalysis, and post-Kantian philosophy, Carew thus develops a new critical metaphysics-a metaphysics which is a variation upon the late German Idealist theme of balancing system and freedom, realism and idealism, in a single, self-reflexive theoretical construct-that challenges our understanding of nature, culture, and the ultimate structure of reality.

This work was published by Saint Philip Street Press pursuant to a Creative Commons license permitting commercial use. All rights not granted by the work's license are retained by the author or authors.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1013284941
• ISBN13: 9781013284946
• Release Date: October 2020
• Publisher: Saint Philip Street Press
• Length: 326 Pages
• Weight: 1.67 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 8.5" x 11.0"