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Quantum History: A New Materialist Philosophy
Bloomsbury presents
Quantum History
by Slavoj Žižek, read by Joe Jameson.
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 vague spiritualist spin to wave mechanics, Žižek embraces the philosophical implications of quantum mechanics with characteristic erudition and verve. Drawing on the central themes of the holographic universe, non-commutativity and the collapse of superpositions, Žižek evolves a quantum-inspired ontology which reinvents the historical materialism of Hegel and Heidegger – and compels a brutal, often darkly funny, inquisition into the chances of radical emancipatory acts today.
Quantum History takes the listener from the absolute contradiction of the primordial void through quantum oscillations to our ordinary reality, weaving in Lacan and Deleuze, Rovelli and Schelling, opera, cinema, sex and war. Žižek is at his sharpest, saddest, most provocative best as he demonstrates that there is no way of extracting ourselves from the texture of history, no neutral position from which the workings of the world can be observed transparently – we must act from a contingent, complex and inscrutable political moment, in sadness and in doubt, but defiantly.
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 vague spiritualist spin to wave mechanics, Žižek embraces the philosophical implications of quantum mechanics with characteristic erudition and verve. Drawing on the central themes of the holographic universe, non-commutativity and the collapse of superpositions, Žižek evolves a quantum-inspired ontology which reinvents the historical materialism of Hegel and Heidegger – and compels a brutal, often darkly funny, inquisition into the chances of radical emancipatory acts today.
Quantum History takes the listener from the absolute contradiction of the primordial void through quantum oscillations to our ordinary reality, weaving in Lacan and Deleuze, Rovelli and Schelling, opera, cinema, sex and war. Žižek is at his sharpest, saddest, most provocative best as he demonstrates that there is no way of extracting ourselves from the texture of history, no neutral position from which the workings of the world can be observed transparently – we must act from a contingent, complex and inscrutable political moment, in sadness and in doubt, but defiantly.
- GenresPhilosophy
456 pages, Hardcover
Published November 13, 2025
20 people are currently reading
136 people want to read
About the author
Slavoj Žižek
637 books7,539 followersSlavoj Žižek is a Slovene sociologist, philosopher, and cultural critic.
He was born in Ljubljana, Slovenia (then part of SFR Yugoslavia). He received a Doctor of Arts in Philosophy from the University of Ljubljana and studied psychoanalysis at the University of Paris VIII with Jacques-Alain Miller and François Regnault. In 1990 he was a candidate with the party Liberal Democracy of Slovenia for Presidency of the Republic of Slovenia (an auxiliary institution, abolished in 1992).
Since 2005, Žižek has been a member of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts.
Žižek is well known for his use of the works of 20th century French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan in a new reading of popular culture. He writes on many topics including the Iraq War, fundamentalism, capitalism, tolerance, political correctness, globalization, subjectivity, human rights, Lenin, myth, cyberspace, postmodernism, multiculturalism, post-marxism, David Lynch, and Alfred Hitchcock.
In an interview with the Spanish newspaper El País he jokingly described himself as an "orthodox Lacanian Stalinist". In an interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! he described himself as a "Marxist" and a "Communist."
He was born in Ljubljana, Slovenia (then part of SFR Yugoslavia). He received a Doctor of Arts in Philosophy from the University of Ljubljana and studied psychoanalysis at the University of Paris VIII with Jacques-Alain Miller and François Regnault. In 1990 he was a candidate with the party Liberal Democracy of Slovenia for Presidency of the Republic of Slovenia (an auxiliary institution, abolished in 1992).
Since 2005, Žižek has been a member of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts.
Žižek is well known for his use of the works of 20th century French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan in a new reading of popular culture. He writes on many topics including the Iraq War, fundamentalism, capitalism, tolerance, political correctness, globalization, subjectivity, human rights, Lenin, myth, cyberspace, postmodernism, multiculturalism, post-marxism, David Lynch, and Alfred Hitchcock.
In an interview with the Spanish newspaper El País he jokingly described himself as an "orthodox Lacanian Stalinist". In an interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! he described himself as a "Marxist" and a "Communist."
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 15, 2025
I did not finish all the Variations.
First and foremost, while Bloomsbury's occasional editorial blunders in say, "Disparities" were cute and accentuated the Zizekian concept, this volume's abhorrent lack of editing is a disgrace. I don't know whether the publisher's too lazy, arrogant, or simply incompetent; or whether they've put a draft to print, or if they simply don't give a rat's, but this is not acceptable.
That said, the book is, as expected, a rehash of post-LTN operations and concepts. While it is true, that Zizek's put more emphasis on his interpretation of, shall one say, Lacanian quantum mechanics, most of that is a dialogue with Rovelli that goes on much longer than necessary. There is also what appears to be a critique of Pippin's Hegel, although the digressions there make the entire assault unappealing. While the subtitle promises us a new materialism, we get nothing more than a retelling of the quantum understanding way back from "Indivisible Remainder".
There's an odd irony when Zizek mentions McGowan's preposterousness that Fascism is the natural reaction immanent to Capitalism (holy cow!). I almost believe Zizek is aware of it, when he later counter-suggests, in essence, to look for the solution in the decaying doxa rather than militantly working-in a heresy, to use Bourdieu's terms. That is to say, even though Zizek constantly (and entirely blindly) advocates for The Emancipatory Politics via the metonymy of Communism -- which is what McGowan would also like to use Lacan to do -- he is not at all consistent in either upholding the status-quo until its (teleological?) self-destruction a-la Evola in "Ride the Tiger", or rebelling against it in line with what Badiou might recommend with his militant evental fidelity. Zizek wants to be the subject-supposed-to-know, but it's exceedingly hard for him to at the same time combat Liberalism and repeat some of its core tenets.
I have a problem with the way Zizek twists his own earlier conclusions to prove subjective points. Categorizing "true fundamentalists" by way of "lack of envy" and exalting them as a positive against the "pseudo fundamentalist" envious Other, he makes the point that a pervert (a tool at the hand of the Other, in-envious) is a proper stance as opposed to a neurotic. Which is a deeply a-Lacanian moralizing suggestion. Why is that?: first, Lacan, and to that extent Zizek, has already condemned the stance of the pervert viz. the "bad dupe", as erring, mal-informed; second, the envious fundamentalist is a veiling of the non-dupe - who also errs. Zizek wants to exalt a content and unshakable "true believer" as opposed a lukewarm fan almost in a Messianic manner. (Notice how his critique of Buddhism as producing slaves of ideology is undermined by advocating a fundamentalist with lack of envy.) None of that is true to the Lacanian legacy: "I demand you reject what I'm offering you because it's not that."
Furthermore, a sign of Zizek's unfortunately aging style is attested by his fundamental misunderstanding of AI as evident in the way he handles it as a military asset. "Viruses" are not "implanted into the AI systems". That part of the book was already reading as pseudo-paranoid. Further down the line, it borders on psychosis.
In summation, this book is the worst of both words: his ontological work, and his political work. (The division is one he makes himself, in the film Zizek!) While for me he is at his worst in "Sex and the Failed Absolute" and in "Surplus Enjoyment" respectively, this book does not amount to more than an anthology of those bad precepts: covertly recruiting for a political movement you cannot articulate, while undermining your own edifice for the sake of recruitment. It is mid at best. It would definitely be off-putting for a newcomer, unless they're already predisposed to certain political ideologies, in which case they'd find a new Master in the face of Zizek -- something Lacan worked adamantly to prevent himself from becoming.
P.S. The one Variation on the Bhagavad Gita is, ironically, a subversion of most of the political messaging within this volume, and of his post-Trump activism in general. Yet still, it is a lovely essay on its own.
First and foremost, while Bloomsbury's occasional editorial blunders in say, "Disparities" were cute and accentuated the Zizekian concept, this volume's abhorrent lack of editing is a disgrace. I don't know whether the publisher's too lazy, arrogant, or simply incompetent; or whether they've put a draft to print, or if they simply don't give a rat's, but this is not acceptable.
That said, the book is, as expected, a rehash of post-LTN operations and concepts. While it is true, that Zizek's put more emphasis on his interpretation of, shall one say, Lacanian quantum mechanics, most of that is a dialogue with Rovelli that goes on much longer than necessary. There is also what appears to be a critique of Pippin's Hegel, although the digressions there make the entire assault unappealing. While the subtitle promises us a new materialism, we get nothing more than a retelling of the quantum understanding way back from "Indivisible Remainder".
There's an odd irony when Zizek mentions McGowan's preposterousness that Fascism is the natural reaction immanent to Capitalism (holy cow!). I almost believe Zizek is aware of it, when he later counter-suggests, in essence, to look for the solution in the decaying doxa rather than militantly working-in a heresy, to use Bourdieu's terms. That is to say, even though Zizek constantly (and entirely blindly) advocates for The Emancipatory Politics via the metonymy of Communism -- which is what McGowan would also like to use Lacan to do -- he is not at all consistent in either upholding the status-quo until its (teleological?) self-destruction a-la Evola in "Ride the Tiger", or rebelling against it in line with what Badiou might recommend with his militant evental fidelity. Zizek wants to be the subject-supposed-to-know, but it's exceedingly hard for him to at the same time combat Liberalism and repeat some of its core tenets.
I have a problem with the way Zizek twists his own earlier conclusions to prove subjective points. Categorizing "true fundamentalists" by way of "lack of envy" and exalting them as a positive against the "pseudo fundamentalist" envious Other, he makes the point that a pervert (a tool at the hand of the Other, in-envious) is a proper stance as opposed to a neurotic. Which is a deeply a-Lacanian moralizing suggestion. Why is that?: first, Lacan, and to that extent Zizek, has already condemned the stance of the pervert viz. the "bad dupe", as erring, mal-informed; second, the envious fundamentalist is a veiling of the non-dupe - who also errs. Zizek wants to exalt a content and unshakable "true believer" as opposed a lukewarm fan almost in a Messianic manner. (Notice how his critique of Buddhism as producing slaves of ideology is undermined by advocating a fundamentalist with lack of envy.) None of that is true to the Lacanian legacy: "I demand you reject what I'm offering you because it's not that."
Furthermore, a sign of Zizek's unfortunately aging style is attested by his fundamental misunderstanding of AI as evident in the way he handles it as a military asset. "Viruses" are not "implanted into the AI systems". That part of the book was already reading as pseudo-paranoid. Further down the line, it borders on psychosis.
In summation, this book is the worst of both words: his ontological work, and his political work. (The division is one he makes himself, in the film Zizek!) While for me he is at his worst in "Sex and the Failed Absolute" and in "Surplus Enjoyment" respectively, this book does not amount to more than an anthology of those bad precepts: covertly recruiting for a political movement you cannot articulate, while undermining your own edifice for the sake of recruitment. It is mid at best. It would definitely be off-putting for a newcomer, unless they're already predisposed to certain political ideologies, in which case they'd find a new Master in the face of Zizek -- something Lacan worked adamantly to prevent himself from becoming.
P.S. The one Variation on the Bhagavad Gita is, ironically, a subversion of most of the political messaging within this volume, and of his post-Trump activism in general. Yet still, it is a lovely essay on its own.
Displaying 1 of 1 review