4 ms·
I feel like a lot of outsiders see people like Zizek, and get the impression that philosophy today has a lot do with language and psychoanalysis. I'm not exactl
by orthoganol 12y ago
I feel like a lot of outsiders see people like Zizek, and get the impression that philosophy today has a lot do with language and psychoanalysis. I'm not exactly sure what the insights are, but it at least feels like a very different brand than Socrates badgering people about what is justice.
- eli_gottlieb 12y agoSocrates is analytic -- well, proto-analytic. Zizek is Continental.
- hyperpape 12y agoI get what you're trying to say but "analytic philosophy" was a pretty specific movement, and calling Socrates pronto-analytic is just confusing.
- orthoganol 12y agoI think that dichotomy is just a construct of the Anglo sphere, isn't it? I don't think philosophers outside the US and Britain ever referred to themselves as 'continental.' Even so Analytic Philosophy was just a reaction against British Hegelians in the later 19th century, starting with Bertrand Russell. Those distinctions get thrown around way too crudely.
- gaius 12y agoZizek is to Nietzsche as Dan Brown is to Shakespeare.
- orthoganol 12y agoI'm not sure I would pick Nietzsche for the gold standard of philosophy. I've always had it that Plato, Kant, and Hegel were the big 3 (in terms of systematic ontologies). Also, Dan Brown sells like crazy and is easy to read. Zizek, no one can read, and no one actually buys his books AFAIK. But at the level of 'sensationalism' perhaps I could see that.
- taylorscollon 12y agoThis is a worthwhile point. People have a misconception about what philosophy is because pop 'philosophy' like Zizek is more about generating controversy than useful inquiry. It's like someone who has only ever seen click bait dismissing journalism as pointless.