Reading Hegel

by Slavoj Žižek, Frank Ruda, Agon Hamza

A spirit is haunting contemporary thought – the spirit of Hegel. All the powers of academia have entered into a holy alliance to exorcize this Vitalists and Eschatologists, Transcendental Pragmatists and Speculative Realists, Historical Materialists and even ‘liberal Hegelians’. Which of these groups has not been denounced as metaphysically Hegelian by its opponents? And which has not hurled back the branding reproach of Hegelian metaphysics in its turn? Progressives, liberals and reactionaries alike receive this condemnation. In light of this situation, it is high time that true Hegelians should openly admit their allegiance and, without obfuscation, express the importance and validity of Hegelianism to the contemporary intellectual scene. To this end, a small group of Hegelians of different nationalities have assembled to sketch the following book – a book which addresses a number of pressing issues that a contemporary reading of Hegel allows a new perspective our relation to the future, our relation to nature and our relation to the absolute.

Genres: Philosophy, Theory, Ebooks

216 pages, Paperback

Published March 14, 2022

About the author

Slavoj 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."

Reviews

[Amanda books_ergo_sum · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great, radical reading of Hegel.

This book was made up of three essays.
✨ Frank Ruda looked at Hegel's Philosophy of Nature using a method I like to call "insisting on the crazy" to challenge interpretations of Hegel that attempt to naturalize him.
✨ Agon Hamza pulled an Uno Reverse Card to argue that we need a Hegelian critique of Marx for a truly radical Marxism.

Those two essays were decent and where the four star rating is coming from.

✨ Slavoj Zizek's essay was perfection, though. On the surface, it was a critique of a prominent American "Hegel scholar" (I can't not scare quotes that 😆) Robert Brandom. But really, it was an excellent demonstration of a radical interpretation of Hegel in action, explaining Hegelian terms like
'determinate negation' and 'concrete universality' without falling into the usual teleological/ conservative traps in the context of current day identity politics. And it made me realize that this Hegelian method is behind a lot of Zizek's movies, lectures, and pop culture analysis books.

I wish this book had been more 'for a pop audience' than it was. I have a very Elle Woods, "what like it's hard?" attitude towards Hegel-unfortunately considered by most to be the most difficult philosopher to read. But I don't think Hegel scholarship needs to be obtuse.

Zizek was pretty clear, though! And if you're thinking about reading some Hegel, I'd highly recommend his essay in this book. It felt both beginner friendly and 100% correct-which is too unique.

[Bruno Monfort · Rating 3 out of 5]

El llibre és molt dens. El capítol de Zizek el que menys m’ha agradat. He trobat interessant l’elaboració sobre la retroactivitat de la substància ètica i l’Esperit és una erecció. El segon capítol (Ruda) és el que més m’ha agradat, molt bona exploració del concepte de natura en Hegel. Finalment, el capítol de Hamza tampoc m’ha acabat d’agradar. No sabia que tant ell com Zizek eren de la branca dels comuns, tot i que, pel llibre Pandèmia (2020) es podia deduir. M’ha agradat la part final del comunisme com a moviment contradictori desplegat constantment.

[Ayush · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reiterates some views, adds some new ideas.