Slavoj Žižek and Dialectical Materialism Slavoj Žižek and Dialectical Materialism Edited by Agon Hamza and Frank Ruda SLAVOJ ŽIŽEK AND DIALECTICAL MATERIALISM Selection and editorial content © Agon Hamza and Frank Ruda 2016 Individual chapters © their respective contributors 2016 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2016 978-1-137-54542-8 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission. In accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published 2016 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of Nature America, Inc., One New York Plaza, Suite 4500, New York, NY 10004-1562. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. ISBN 978-1-349-57249-6 E-PDF ISBN: 978–1–137–53861–1 DOI: 10.1057/9781137538611 Distribution in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world is by Palgrave Macmillan®, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Slavoj Žižek and dialectical materialism / edited by Agon Hamza and Frank Ruda. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Žižek, Slavoj. 2. Dialectical materialism. I. Hamza, Agon, 1984– editor. B4870.Z594S57 2015 199’.4973—dc23 2015018586 A catalogue record for the book is available from the British Library. To our man of steel, Slavoj Žižek Contents List of Figures ix Acknowledgments xi 1 Introduction: The Absolute Revisited—Slavoj Žižek and Dialectical Materialism 1 Agon Hamza and Frank Ruda 2 Materialism without Materialism: Slavoj Žižek and the Disappearance of Matter 3 Adrian Johnston 3 The Althusserian Battlegrounds 23 Robert Pfaller 4 The Necessity of an Absolute Misunderstanding: Why Hegel Has So Many Misreaders 43 Todd McGowan 5 From Hegel to Kant: The Thing-of-Itself German Idealism 57 Jan Voelker 6 Politics of Negativity in Slavoj Žižek: Actualizing Some Hegelian Themes 69 Vladimir Safatle 7 Dialectic at Its Impurest: Žižek’s Materialism of Less Than Nothing 85 Simon Hajdini 8 Natural Worlds, Historical Worlds, and Dialectical Materialism 101 Ed Pluth 9 Positing the Presuppositions—Dialectical Biology and the Minimal Structure of Life 113 Victor Marques viii CONTENTS 10 Transferential Materialism: Toward a Theory of Formal Otherness 133 Gabriel Tupinambá 11 Dialectical Materialism and the Dangers of Aristotelianism 147 Frank Ruda 12 Going to One’s Ground: Žižek’s Dialectical Materialism 163 Agon Hamza 13 Afterword: Objects, Objects Everywhere 177 Slavoj Žižek Notes on Contributors 193 Index 195 List of Figures 7.1 Table of the Four Types of Negation I 87 7.2 Schema of the “Mere Not” 94 7.3 Table of the Four Types of Negation II 95 7.4 Schema of Four Nothings I 96 7.5 Schema of Four Nothings II 97