I decided to do my project on Slavoj Zizek, a rather intriguing philosopher even though I may not agree with all his views. I will be doing a series of blog posts; this is the first installment. This post is an introduction to the philosophy o Zizek and provides some background. In the next installments, I will focus on analyzing his philosophical views.
Some Background:
He
was born in 1949 in Slovenia, and is now the age of 65 years. Both of his
parents were atheists, which I believe may have greatly influenced who he is.
He says that at 15 he wanted to be a film director, and then he
saw a few really good European films and accepted that he could not do that. He
then decided at the age of 17 that he wanted to be a philosopher. I can’t help
but imagine what kind of movies who would have come up with.
He
went on to become a professor of philosophy and
psychoanalysis at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland and a senior
researcher at the Institute of Sociology, University of Ljubljana.
Zizek built quite a reputation for himself, and created a name for
himself as the foremost thinker of our times. He is an atheist, and tends to be
politically incorrect. His political and philosophical views are quite unique
and brave.
Interesting Quotes:
v
“We
feel free because we lack the very language to articulate our unfreedom.”
v
“I
secretly think reality exists so we can speculate about it.”
v
“Humanity
is OK, but 99% of people are boring idiots.”
v
“Come
on. I don't have any problem violating my own insights in practice.”
v
“Words
are never 'only words'; they matter because they define the contours of what we
can do.”
v “Love is
not idealization. A true Lover knows that if you really love a woman or a man,
that you do not idealize him or her. Loves means that you accept a person, with
all its failures, stupidities, ugly points and nonetheless the person is
absolute for you, everything that makes life worth living, that you see
perfection in imperfection itself. And that is how we should learn to love the
world.”
"I don't have any problem violating my own insights in practice.” - His version of Walt Whitman's "Do I contradict myself? Very well, I contain multitudes."
ReplyDeleteThe rejection of idealized (Platonic?) love in favor of humane acceptance makes a lot of sense. He's an easier philosopher to read, than listen to!
Difficult to understand, nonetheless interesting!
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