Subjekt, za katerega se predpostavlja, da voli: teflonski totemizem in nepravi čas demokracije

In chapter 6 of Read My Desire, Joan Copjec argues that the constitutive limits of American democracy reveal themselves symptomatically in the electoral choice of a conspicuously incompetent sovereign figure. In a leader for whom governing is exposed as an “impossible profession” (Freud), the Other’s castration appears as a universalsign, which provokes an hysterical form of love even among would-be critics. This essay examines a crucial supplementation to this leader-group dynamic in the “neighborly” structure of voting. When a subject votes, she registers a signifier of her difference as a mark that both estranges her (by turning her difference into a data point) and also situates her in an equivalent alignment with other voters who are either “with” or “against” her position, enabling an imaginary mirror play. From this position of non-interactionand reflective doubling, the subject is invited to participate in a peculiar calculation with respect to what are known as “swing voters,” a demographically constructed set of individuals whose presumptive action is thought to decide the nation’s fate. This hypothetical “subject supposed to vote” is then considered such that the voter, as well as the candidate, adjust their actions based on the anticipated certainty of the fateful mark. In the election cycles that have come to dominate virtually every aspect of civic life, the imputed calculations of this little semblable (granted informational density through interminable polling and fantasized in racist caricature) exert a temporal pressure on democratic subjects that often forces hasty decisions. Through a comparative reading of Copjec’s chapter with Lacan’s essay “Logical Time,” this essay concludes by interpreting the intersubjective logic behind this temporal forcing.V šestem poglavju knjige Read My Desire Joan Copjec trdi, da se konstitutivne omejitve ameriške demokracije simptomatsko kažejo v volilni izbiri očitno nekompetentne suverene figure. Pri voditelju, za katerega se vladanje izkaže za »nemogoč poklic« (Freud), se kastracija Drugega kaže kot univerzalni znak, ki sproži histerično obliko ljubezni celo med potencialnimi kritiki. Prispevek preučuje ključno dopolnitev te dinamike med voditeljem in skupino v »bližnjikovski« strukturi glasovanja. Ko subjekt voli, zapiše označevalec svoje drugačnosti z oznako, ki ga odtuji od drugih volivcev (s tem ko njeno drugačnost spremeni v podatkovno točko) in ga hkrati postavi v revitalizirajoč imaginarni konflikt z njimi. V tej neinterakciji pride do posebnega izračuna glede t. i. »neodločenih volivcev«, tj. demografsko konstruirane skupine posameznikov, katerih domnevno delovanje naj bi odločalo o usodi naroda. Tako volivec kot kandidat tega hipotetičnega »subjekta, za katerega se predpostavlja, da voli«, nato obravnavata tako, da volivec svoje ravnanje prilagaja vnaprejšnji gotovosti o usodnem znaku. V volilnih ciklih, kiso obvladovali praktično vse vidike državljanskega življenja, tovrstno preračunavanje tega malega podobnika (materializiranega v neskončnih javnomnenjskih raziskavah infantaziranega v rasističnih karikaturah) izvaja časovni pritisk na demokratične subjekte, ki jih pogosto prisili k prenaglim odločitvam. S primerjalnim branjem Copjecinega poglavja in Lacanovega eseja »Logični čas« ta esej zaključi z interpretacijo intersubjektivne logike, ki stoji za to časovno prisilo

Klasifikacija slovanskih jezikov na podlagi Slovanskega lingvističnega atlasa: prvi poskus (original: Классификация славянских языков на материале Общеславянского лингвистического атласа: пробный шар)

This study proposes a classification of Slavic languages based on an objective dialectometric analysis of the materials of the Slavic Linguistic Atlas. Unlike traditional classifications, which rely primarily on literary languages and are influenced by extralinguistic factors, this method focuses on the dialect continuum. The work is based on data from 6 volumes of the phonetic-grammatical series of the Slavic Linguistic Atlas, containing information on the reflexes of 7 Proto-Slavic vowels (*ě, *ę, *ǫ, *ъ, *ь, *o, *e) in 780 localities. For each reflex, linguistic characteristics (height, backness, length, rounding,nasalization) were determined and presented as vectors. The key stage was a pairwise comparison of reflexes between all locations with the calculation of the Euclidean distance, taking into account structural differences (for example, between monophthongs and diphthongs). Based on the constructed matrix of linguistic distances, hierarchical clustering by Ward’s method was applied. The analysis revealed that, for the material considered, the optimal division of the Slavic area is into 15 clusters. The algorithm confirmed established views in Slavic dialectology, as it correctly separated the East, West, and South Slavic areas and accurately attributed locations outside state borders. However, shortcomings associated with relying solely on vocalism were also identified, the most striking of which was the erroneous unification of the Torlak and Sorbian dialects.The study demonstrates the potential of quantitative methods to reveal the structure of a dialect continuum, free from subjective assessments. The resulting classification serves as an important benchmark but does not replace traditional approaches.Članek predlaga inovativen pristop h klasifikaciji slovanskih jezikov na podlagi podatkov, predstavljenih v Slovanskem lingvističnem atlasu. Pristop temelji na parni primerjavi refleksov praslovanskih samoglasnikov iz 780 lokacij. Za ugotavljanje narečne bližine je uporabljen hierarhični algoritem združevanja, ki omogoča razdelitev slovanskega območja na 15 območij. Pri vsakem območju se ob formalnem navaja tudi teoretičen opis. &nbsp

Etiologije črnih koz in vakcinacija: vpliv razumevanja variole na zgodnje obdobje vakcinacije v habsburški monarhiji

The study focuses on one of the main reasons for the rejection of early vaccination, which is in fact linked to the understanding of smallpox disease itself. Because of its course, speed of spread and mortality rate, this infectious disease has been considered one of the worst scourges of mankind, but it is also the only human infectious disease to have been eradicated, with prophylactic vaccination playing a key role. This study will explore the understanding of variola in an era not yet based on knowledge of pathogenic microbes as disease-causing agents. The paper will show that ordinary people and physicians expressed plural perceptions of variola, which could be changing, mutually exclusive but also mixed. The main conclusion of the paper is that the perception of variola as an innate necessity that purifies the body has acted as one of the main reasons for the rejection of vaccination.Raziskava se posveča enemu od glavnih razlogov za zavračanje zgodnje vakcinacije, ki je vezan na samo razumevanje bolezni črnih koz. Zaradi poteka, hitrosti širjenja in stopnje smrtnosti je ta nalezljiva bolezen veljala za eno najhujših nadlog človeštva, je pa tudi edina človeška nalezljiva bolezen, ki je bila izkoreninjena, pri čemer je imela ključno vlogo vakcinacija. V študiji bo raziskano, kakšno je bilo razumevanje variole v času, ki še ne temelji na vednosti o patogenih mikrobih kot povzročiteljih bolezni. Prispevek pokaže, da so običajni ljudje in zdravniki črne koze razumeli različno, poleg tega pa so se različna razumevanja te bolezni spreminjala, medsebojno izključevala, a tudi prepletala in kombinirala. Temeljna ugotovitev članka je, da je razumevanje variole kot prirojene nujnosti, ki prečisti telo, delovalo kot eden glavnih razlogov za zavračanje vakcinacije

Spol: težava

This essay sets out from the observation that, by and large, the Lacanian field has tended to celebrate Joan Copjec’s “Sex and the Euthanasia of Reason” at the expense of rigorously engaging with it. Indeed, Copjec’s explosive text has often been taken—wrongly—as warranting both an indiscriminate dismissal of the entire project of queer theory (especially where it contests psychoanalytic theorizations of sexual difference) and the frequent confusion of transphobic countertransference with psychoanalytic thinking. Moving against this tendency, “Sex: Trouble” disencumbers the queer- and trans-emancipatory kernel of Copjec’s argument—that is, that sex serves no other purpose than to serve no purpose—from the dimorphic and sometimes “cisnormative” terms through which this radical kernel is at once elaborated and undermined. Setting “Sex and the Euthanasia of Reason” in dialogue with a number of queer and trans theorists, “Sex: Trouble” establishes Copjec’s thought as an indispensable weapon in the struggle against the profusion of meanings that threaten to obliterate the negativity, the nothing, that sex is, and on which the freedom of queer and trans (read: all) subjects is staked.Esej izhaja iz opazke, da je lacanovsko polje na splošno slavilo poglavje »Spol in evtanazija uma« iz knjige Joan Copjec Read My Desire na račun tega, da se z njim ni zares strogo ukvarjalo. Copjecino eksplozivno besedilo je bilo namreč pogosto – napačno – razumljeno kot opravičilo za brezpogojno zavračanje celotnega projekta kvir teorije (zlasti tam, kjer ta nasprotuje psihoanalitičnim teoretizacijam spolne razlike) in za pogosto pomešanje transfobnega kontratransferja s psihoanalitičnim mišljenjem. V nasprotju s to tendenco pričujoče besedilo osvobaja kvir in transemancipacijsko jedro Copjecinega argumenta – namreč, da je edina stvar, ki ji seks služi, ta, da ne služi ničemur – od dimorfnih in včasih »cisnormativnih« izrazov, skozi katere je to radikalno jedro hkrati razdelano in spodkopano. Pričujoče besedilo postavi »Spol in evtanazijo uma« v dialog z več kvir in trans teoretiki, s čimer Copjecino misel uveljavlja kot nepogrešljivo orožje v boju proti obilici pomenov, ki grozijo, da bodo izbrisali negativnost, ta nič, ki je spol in na katerem temelji svoboda kvir in trans (beri: vseh) subjektov

Branje (ni) zastalo: intervju z Joan Copjec

The following is a retrospective interview with Joan Copjec on her formative 1994 book, Read My Desire: Lacan Against the Historicists. The interviewer asks Copjec to reflect on the political and academic context surrounding the book’s initial publication, her personal inspiration for writing it as she did, and its enduring relevance after thirty years. Copjec also situates Read My Desire with respect to her recent work concerning the films of Abbas Kiarostami; the changed cultural and intellectual status of psychoanalysis today; the uncanny dimension of American electoral politics and the unthought fantasies that structure it; and the history of the relation between psychoanalysis and Islam. The interview concludes with some indication of where Copjec’s research, teaching, and writing are headed now and into the future.Pričujoči intervju z Joan Copjec je retrospektiva njene formativne knjige Read My Desire: Lacan Against the Historicists. Spraševalec je Copjec povabil k refleksiji političnega in akademskega konteksta, v katerem je knjiga prvič izšla, njenega osebnega navdiha za to, da je knjigo napisala na takšen način, ter njene relevantnosti, ki traja že trideset let. Copjec knjigo Read My Desire umesti tudi v razmerje z njenim novejšim delom, ki zadeva filme Abbasa Kiarostamija; s spremenjenim kulturnim in intelektualnim statusom psihoanalize; z grozljivo razsežnostjo ameriške volilne politike ter nemišljenimi fantazmami, ki jo strukturirajo; ter z razmerjem med psihoanalizo in islamom. Intervju se zaključi z nekaterimi namigi, kam se Copjecino raziskovanje, poučevanje in pisanje usmerjajo sedaj in v prihodnosti

Dojka in pomol: o prekoračitvi tesnobe

This essay explores a possible traversal of anxiety in dialogue with Chapter 5 of Joan Copjec’s Read My Desire, “Vampires, Breastfeeding, and Anxiety.” At stake in this traversal is an act of freedom that opens up a future for the human. Starting with the play of Freudian resonances in Copjec’s title, “Breast and the Jetty” plays, in turn, as an echo of “Death and the Maiden” that enables an analysis of fantasy as a solution to castration anxiety in the neurotic, which has the effect of circumscribing desire. Analyses of the problematics of the breast as partial object and object-cause of desire, and of the “forbidden woman” Copjec locates in Chris Marker’s La Jetée, emphasize a shift from Lacanian theory, centered on the symbolic, to Willy Apollon’s recent metapsychology, developed from GIFRIC’s clinic for the treatment of psychosis in Quebec. By attending to this work, and to the nuances of originary fantasy Lucie Cantin offers, I discern the qualities of an unfettered quest of desire, independent from the conditions of neurotic fantasy and capable of confronting a future for which there is no reference in language.Prispevek raziskuje možnost prekoračitve tesnobe v dialogu s petim poglavjem knjige Joan Copjec Read My Desire, »Vampirji, dojenje in tesnoba«. Pri tej prekoračitvi gre za dejanje svobode, ki človeku odpira prihodnost. Medtem ko v naslovu zadevnega poglavja iz Copjecine knjige odmeva naslov Freudovega spisa, pa v naslovu pričujočega članka »Dojka in pomol« odmeva naslov slike »Deklica in smrt«, ki omogoča analizo fantazme kot rešitve kastracijske tesnobe pri nevrotiku, kar ima za posledico omejitev želje. Analize problematike dojke kot delnega objekta in objekta-vzroka želje ter »prepovedane ženske«, ki jo Copjec najde v filmu Chrisa Markerja Mesto slovesa, izpostavijo premik od lacanovske teorije, osredotočene na simbolno, k nedavni metapsihologiji Willyja Apollona, razviti v kliniki za zdravljenje psihoz GIFRIC v Quebecu. Iz obravnave tega dela in različic izvorne fantazme, ki jih ponuja Lucie Cantin, avtorica razbere lastnosti nebrzdane težnje želje, ki ni odvisna od pogojev nevrotične fantazme in se lahko sooči s prihodnostjo, za katero v jeziku ni nobene reference

O absolutni nemožnosti obstoja sveta: Lacan proti kozmologom

This essay argues that the contemporary relevance of psychoanalysis and Joan Copjec’s Read My Desire can be derived from Sigmund Freud’s consistent rejection of the program of the “re-enchantment of the world.” Facing the onslaught of technological modernity, many of Freud’s contemporaries lamented the disenchantment of the world. Today, this tradition persists as a renewed desire for a shared or common world; we collectively mourn the loss of the world. But, in this context, Copjec’s work raises a disturbing question: can a sexed being have a world? In order to draw out some of the consequences of this question, the essay examines the role Immanuel Kant’s philosophy plays in Read My Desire in two steps: first, it addresses the theoretical argument against the existence of the world, and second, it examines some of the practical consequences of this insight. By providing a parallel reading of Kant’s reflections on the antinomies of cosmological ideas and Jacques Lacan’s formulae of sexuation, Copjec effectively establishes the fact that “the world” and “sex” are mutually exclusive categories.Avtor v članku trdi, da lahko sodobni pomen psihoanalize in knjige Joan Copjec Read My Desire izpeljemo iz Freudovega doslednega zavračanja programa »za-čaranja sveta«. Številni Freudovi sodobniki so se, soočeni s silnim napadom tehnološke moderne, pritoževali nad odčaranjem sveta. Danes se ta tradicija nadaljuje kot obnovitev želje po svetu, ki si ga delimo, oziroma po skupnem svetu: kolektivno žalujemo za izgubo sveta. Delo Joan Copjec v tem kontekstu zastavlja mučno vprašanje: ali ima seksuirano bitje lahko svet? Da bi izpeljal nekatere posledice tega vprašanja, avtor v dveh korakih preuči vlogo filozofije Immanuela Kanta v knjigi Read My Desire: prvič, obravnava teoretski argument proti obstoju sveta, in drugič, preuči nekatere praktične posledice tega uvida. Copjec s svojim vzporednim branjem Kantovih refleksij o antinomijah kozmoloških idej in Lacanovih formul seksuacije učinkovito pokaže, da sta »svet« in »spol« medsebojno izključujoči kategoriji

Uvodnik: Ponosna nepismenost: ali Read My Desire, še enkrat

This article is the editorial introduction to a special issue of Filozofski Vestnik dedicated to Joan Copjec’s 1994 book Read My Desire: Lacan Against the Historicists. It proposes that an enduring resistance to Copjec’s insights across the theoretical humanities must be understood as a symptom of the radical shift in thinking the book provokes, disguised as a proud defense of the illiteracy of desire Copjec indicts. Tracking this proud illiteracy to its origins in the intellectual fallout from the 1968 student revolts in Paris, the author argues that returning to Read My Desire now, thirty years since its initial publication, can inform an engagement with student radicalism, and youth in revolt more generally, that is ethically responsive to the political and social exigencies of the present. The article concludes with a summary of the issue’s other contributions and the ways in which they each introduce novel readings of Read My Desire that demonstrate the book’s lasting impact and reiterate its still-unread potentialČlanek je uvodni uredniški prispevek k posebni številki revije Filozofski Vestnik, posvečeni knjigi Joan Copjec iz leta 1994 z naslovom Read My Desire: Lacan Against the Historicists. V njem avtor predlaga, da je treba vztrajno nasprotovanje Copjecinim uvidom, ki ga lahko opazimo na področju teoretske humanistike, razumeti kot simptom radikalne spremembe v mišljenju, ki jo knjiga sproža, ta simptom pa je zakamufliran v ponosno zagovarjanje nepismenosti želje, kar Copjec kritizira. Avtor sledi tej ponosni nepismenosti do njenih izvorov v intelektualnih posledicah študentskih uporov v Parizu leta 1968 in trdi, da lahko vrnitev k Read My Desire zdaj, trideset let po njeni prvi izdaji, nekaj pove o študentskem radikalizmu in uporni mladini na splošno, na način, ki se etično odziva na politične in družbene zahteve sedanjosti. Članek se zaključi s povzetkom drugih prispevkov v tej številki in načinov, na katere vsak od njih uvaja nove interpretacije Read My Desire, ki dokazujejo trajen vpliv knjige in ponovno poudarjajo njen še neizkoriščen potencial

Evtanazija svobode in seksualni conatus

One of the tours de force in Joan Copjec’s Read My Desire concerns the correlation between the Lacanian formulas of sexuation and the Kantian antinomies of reason. This paper traces the modern itinerary of freedom, from the dynamic antinomy (male side) and Kant’s free public world Scholar of the Enlightenment, through Marx’s democratic State as the locus of transcendent freedom, to Copjec’s sex qua real, i.e., as a freedom that emerges out of the signifier’s own non-symbolizable effects. Accordingly, today’s gender and other identitarian self-proclamations—whose “dico, ergo sum”: “I say, therefore I am” (Jacques-Alain Miller) endeavors to subsume one’s being under the signifier and, hence, eliminate the real—amount to the euthanasia of freedom. Opposing this development, this essay proposes Spinoza’s substance qua power of self-actualization and immanent causality, as well as the singular conatus (striving to persevere in one’s own being), as key ontological concepts required to sustain the two intertwined aspects of the real as both (an impossible) pre-symbolic cause and (an increasingly prohibited, yet inevitable) post-symbolic effect.Eden od vrhuncev v knjigi Joan Copjec Read My Desire se nanaša na korelacijo med lacanovskimi formulami seksuacije in kantovskimi antinomijami uma. Članek sledi moderni poti svobode, od dinamične antinomije (moška stran) in Kantovega razsvetljenskega Učenjaka svobodnega javnega sveta, prek Marxove demokratične države kot kraja transcendentne svobode, do Copjecinega spola kot realnega, tj. kot svobode, ki se poraja iz nesimbolizabilnih učinkov označevalca. V skladu s tem so današnja spolna in druga identitetna samorazglašanja – katerih dico, ergo sum, »rečem, torej sem« (Jacques-Alain Miller), si prizadeva, da bi svojo bit podredil označevalcu in s tem odpravil realno – pomeni eutana­zijo svobode. Nasproti temu razvoju ta esej predlaga Spinozovo substanco kot moč samoudejanjenja in imanentne vzročnosti ter singularni conatus (prizadevanje za vztrajanje in ohranjanje v svoji lastni biti) kot ključna ontološka pojma, potrebna za vzdrževanje obeh prepletenih vidikov realnega kot (nemožnega) predsimbolnega vzroka in (vse bolj prepovedanega, a neizogibnega) postsimbolnega učinka

Jugoslovanski jedrski program v kontekstu hladne vojne (1948–1971)

Following the end of the Second World War, Yugoslavia embraced the Soviet ideological conception of society as the ideal model for all spheres of life, including science. In accordance with this, scientific work in the country should be planned, centralized and defined by the party-line. After the break-up with the USSR in 1948, especially at first, Yugoslavia showed a strong geopolitical inclination toward the Western Bloc. This led to the formation of a new state system of “Socialist Self-Management,” but also brought about the rise of new discursive and organizational trends in Yugoslav science, which were compatible with certain elements of the perspective of science as autonomous – the hegemonic idea of science in the West. We will present the development of the Yugoslav nuclear program in the period from 1948 to 1971. Despite changes that occurred due to the geopolitical shift in the domain of scientific organization and scientific discourse in Yugoslav science, we will show that the established organization of the nuclear program was much more in line with the Soviet model. Only when the nuclear program began to lose its political importance was it directed towards greater autonomy, which implied a greater focus on investment efficiency, i.e. limiting state investments and control. Our aim is to analyse the function of two dominant Cold War perspectives on science in the context of geopolitical and socio-economic processes of the (semi)peripheral Yugoslav socialist system, and their manifest and latent functions on the example of the nuclear program.Po koncu druge svetovne vojne se je Jugoslavija oprla na sovjetsko ideološko pojmovanje družbe kot ideal za vsa življenjska področja, tudi za znanost. V skladu s tem naj bi znanstveno delo v državi potekalo plansko, centralizirano in opredeljeno s partijsko linijo. Po sporu z ZSSR leta 1948 se je Jugoslavija zlasti sprva geopolitično močno naslonila na zahodni blok. To je privedlo do oblikovanja novega državnega sistema »socialističnega samoupravljanja«, pa tudi do razmaha novih diskurzivnih in organizacijskih trendov v jugoslovanski znanosti, ki so bili združljivi z določenimi elementi pogleda na znanost kot avtonomen sistem – kar je prevladujoča predstava o znanosti na Zahodu. Predstavili bomo razvoj jugoslovanskega jedrskega programa v obdobju med letoma 1948 in 1971. Kljub spremembam, ki so se v državi zaradi geopolitičnega premika zgodile na področju organizacije znanosti in znanstvenega diskurza, bomo pokazali, da je bila zastavljena organizacija jedrskega programa še zmeraj pretežno skladna s sovjetskim modelom. Šele ko je jedrski program začel izgubljati politični pomen, se je usmeril k večji avtonomiji, kar je pomenilo večjo osredotočenost na investicijsko učinkovitost, tj. omejitev neposrednih vlaganj in nadzora države. Naš cilj je analiza delovanja dveh prevladujočih pogledov na znanost v času hladne vojne v kontekstu geopolitičnih in družbeno-gospodarskih procesov v (pol)perifernem jugoslovanskem socialističnem sistemu ter njunega odkritega in prikritega učinkovanja na primeru jedrskega programa