The book analyses how today's capitalist ideology produces the idea of freedom of choice and how through the identification with this ideology one observes an increase of people's traumas. The study suggests that the constant imposition of guilt inevitably results in the rise of anxiety, which has indeed became the main affective modus of contemporary society. Understanding one's life or even body as a product of deliberate choice obviously amounts to feeling responsible for it. But that means that we will experience every deviation from conformity as a failure attributable only to ourselves, causing great anxiety. To counter this indeed unbearable psychic situation, argues the study, we are led to give up our freedom of choice in favor of expert knowledge or some other form of outer authority. The tyranny of choice of late capitalism therefore leads to its very opposite, i.e. to the rise of authority (indeed often consisting of charlatans) which is supposed to help in the dreadful task of life management.
COBISS.SI-ID: 1694798
The paper analyses the specific logical structure of an argument used by Erasmus of Rotterdam in his Praise of Folly in his attempt to prove the paradoxical rationality of madness/stupidity. The argument has two key characteristics. Firstly, it is possible to show that almost the same logic also underlies the Cartesian Cogito (there from the term a-cogito). And secondly, the paper shows that on the basis of a minimal transformation of the argument, it is in fact possible to prove the existence of stupidity with exactly the same certainty as Descartes proves the existence of thought as such. Thereby the paper intervenes in one of the most topical debates in contemporary philosophy, namely the dilemma (speculative realism, eliminitivist materialism) of whether philosophy can after all make objective statements on noumenal reality, that is, reality as independent from its subjective perception, or is it necessary that philosophy in all respects relinquishes its ontological function to sciences. In this context, the paper, mostly on the basis of Deleuze’ critique of the standard model of thought, focuses on those segments of the structure of thought as such, which still elude scientific epistemological apparatus. In this manner the paper critically points out to perhaps in some cases over-optimistic views on the possibility of complete scientific explanations of human behaviour. The modified version of the paper will be published by the English journal Critical Engagements under the title: “A-cogito. The Ontological Proof of Stupidity.”
COBISS.SI-ID: 35609133
Contemporary capitalism relies on the ideology that everyone can make it in today’s society and that people are essentially free to choose the direction of their lives. This ideology has greatly contributed to people’s feelings of inadequacy, anxiety and guilt. At the same time, people also more and more engage in various forms of self-torture as well as violent outbursts towards others. The paper will look at the news forms of self-violence that we can observe in post-industrial capitalism as well as at the new forms of violence expressed in the society as such. It will also look at how the fantasy structure of contemporary capitalism has contributed to the new forms of ignorance that we can observe in the developed and developing world.
COBISS.SI-ID: 1578830
Law nowadays very much tries to solve crimes with the help of the body material found on the scene of crime (like blood or adn). Some experts are, however, giving fraudulent testimonies in court. The article analyses these testimonies with the help of psychoanalysis. It wonders whether in some cases we cannot observe neurotic and perverse enjoyment of the expert when he or she condemns an innocent person to long prison sentences.
COBISS.SI-ID: 1623630