The Atom and the Void – from Democritus to Lacan

The paper considers the problem of the void through the theories of the early atomists. Philosophy began with the Parmenidian assertion of being, which can be read as a thesis premised on an exorcism of the void. With the atomists, the first to oppose the Parmenidian foundation of philosophy, the void made its entry as part and parcel of the atom. If the atom was to be counted as one, the void separating atoms was the very condition of such a count. Hegel saw this as the profound insight that negativity was the condition of positivity, hence the one and the void as the matrix of being. – The second twist in this atomist story is that of clinamen, a contingent swerve which befalls atoms, and hence something that inherently departs and undermines ‘the one and the void’. The clinamen theory was much criticized and ridiculed by the great philosophical tradition, including by Hegel. A very young Karl Marx, in his dissertation, defended the crucial value of clinamen, and in recent times Louis Althusser and Gilles Deleuze followed in his footsteps. – The third significant aspect is that of den, a curious neologism introduced by Democritus, which perhaps undermines both stories at the outset. For if atom is den, then it is not a body, not an entity, not one, not being, but also not non-being. It is a paradoxical departure from the bulk of ontology, an ontological scandal, obfuscated by the subsequent Aristotelian paradigm. Jacques Lacan took it up as a clue to his notion of the object a, the object of psychoanalysis

WHAT’S IN A VOICE?

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Deconstructing voice

The paper takes its starting point in Derrida's famous essay 'Plato's Pharmacy',  one of the birthplaces of deconstruction. After briefly delineating Derrida's argument about phonocentrism and the pharmakon as both the poison and the cure, it tries to argue for a different view about the relationship of voice and writing. If one takes a closer look at Plato's conception of music, one can see that Plato sees the danger not only in the supplementarity of writing, but also in the voice itself. The voice, if it strays away from the firm footing in the word, in logos, has the perilous property of presenting the pure frivolous enjoyment, it threatens to mollify the spirit by its sensuality and effemination and thus to undermine the very bases of social and moral structures. Thus it appears that the analysis of pharmakon can apply equally, or even more appropriately, to the voice as to writing. A long tradition followed in Plato's footsteps and the paper briefly examines St. Augustine, the problems that the voice presented for church music and finally the French revolution, which tried to legislate in musical matters unwittingly following Plato's recipes. So throughout the metaphysical tradition the voice was not merely seen as the safeguard of phonocentrism and the 'metaphysics of presence', but presented also the perilous underside of dislocating the presence, not merely supporting the logos, but also dismantling it. The history of music massively testifies to the inherent ambiguity of the voice itself. So the problem is not just deconstructing the voice as the pledge of phonocentrism, but also of the voice being itself deconstructive of the presence. Hence the ambiguity of the title

KANT IN KONEC RAZSVETLJENSTVA

Izhajajoč iz dveh slavnih Kantovih tekstov (»Kaj je razsvetljenstvo?« in Spor fakultet) skuša pričujoči spis pokazati na notranjo zvezo med avtonomijo uma in subjektivno svobodo (tema dvema velikima razsvetljenskima gesloma) na eni strani ter nujnim pokoravanjem arbitrarni avtoriteti (kar bo kasneje poimenovano »represivni in ideološki državni aparat«) na drugi. V Kantovem načrtu za organizacijo Univerze se ta povezanost kaže kot delitev na zgornje in spodnje fakultete, pri čemer se morajo prve podrejati samovoljnim ukazom zunanje oblasti, druga (filozofska fakulteta) pa naj se ravna le po načelih uma. Obe plati spadata skupaj v skladu s Kantovim paradoksnim stališčem, da samo omejitev osvobaja, medtem ko bi neposredno sovpadanje obojega privedlo do nevarnosti totalitarizma. Toda ta bistvena zveza med umom in ne-umno arbitrarnostjo naposled meri drugam: subjekt, ki si v svoji radikalni avtonomiji in samoopredelitvi postavlja svoj lastni notranji Zakon, je prav v svojem jedru soočen z radikalno heteronomijo. Moralni Zakon, kategorični imperativ, subjekta šele zares oropa njegove iluzorne avtonomije, konec koncev je še manj umno utemeljen kot njegov objektivni protipol. Od subjekta zahteva nemogoče, ne da se ga zadovoljiti, a prav skozi to nemožnost, skozi to bistveno nezadovoljnost vznikne subjekt razsvetljenstva. Zadnji del skuša pokazati, kako Fou-caultova reaktualizacija kantovske pozicije zatre njene radikalne konsekvence. Foucault zvaja Kantovega subjekta na pred-kantovsko etično držo in tako zgreši tisto zastavitev subjektivnosti, ki je položena v temelje psihoanalize

HEGEL ALI SPINOZA OB MACHEREYEVI KNJIGI

Članek poskuša ob Machereyevi knjigi (Maspero 1979) pokazati, da je naslovna alternativa slabo zastavljena. Macherey zoperstavlja Heglovo strategijo, temelječo na univerzalnem subjektu, negaciji negacije in teologiji, in Spinozov radikalno anti-teleološki postopek ter ob problemih geometrične metode, atributov in determinacije kot negacije razkriva slepe pege Heglovega branja Spinoze. Avtor pa skuša nasprotno pokazati, da je pri tem podoba Hegla zvedena na nekaj počeznih preprostih formul, da se mora sama analiza Spinoze, kljub upravičeni kritiki Heglovih spregledov, zaplesti v notranja protislovja ter da je naposled najboljša alternativa heglovskim zablodam Hegel sam

Interpasivnost

The paper develops the idea of interpassivity, a new concept coined on the model of interactivity and which covers a number of phenomena where the subject delegates his/her passivity and enjoyment on to another person or device. The starting point is a text by Villiers de l'lsle-Adam (written in 1874) which can be seen as possibly the birthplace of that idea. It develops the notion of the claque (the hired applause) and proposes its extension into a mechanical device (prefiguring the phenomenon of'the canned laughter' on television). The present paper tries to demonstrate that the notion of the claque can be seen as a pattern for the functioning of desire and its inherent interactivity, while the clue to interpassivity lies in a dimension which inherently differs from and contrasts with desire, and which Freud has pinpointed as the drive. While desire is maintained by its perpetual non-satisfaction, the drive is rather always satisfied, it procures the subject with enjoyment against which desire tries to protect him/her. Psychoanalysis can thus be seen as the process leading from the structures of desire to those of the drive.Tekst razvija idejo interpasivnosti, novega koncepta, oblikovanega po modelu interaktivnosti in ki pokriva vrsto pojavov, v katerih subjekt delegira svojo pasivnost in užitek na drugo osebo ali stvar. Izhodišče je tekst, ki gaje leta 1874 napisal Villiers de 1'Isle-Adam in ki nemara lahko velja za rojstno mesto te ideje. Ta tekst razvija pojem la claque, (najetega aplavza) in predlaga njegovo razširitev, tako da bi ga pretvorili v mehanični aparat (in s tem napoveduje pojav 'konzerviranega smeha' na televiziji). Pričujoči tekst skuša pokazati, daje ta claque mogoče vzeti za vzorec za delovanje želje in njene inherentne interaktivnosti, medtem ko leži ključ do interpasivnosti v neki dimenziji, ki se inherentno razlikuje od želje in seji zoperstavlja, in ki jo je Freud zakoličil kot nagon. Medtem ko se želja vzdržuje skozi svojo nenehno nezadovoljenost, pa je nagon vselej zadovoljen, subjektu priskrbi užitek, pred katerim ga želja skuša obvarovati. Psihoanalizo je tako mogoče dojeti kot proces, ki vodi od struktur želje k strukturam nagona

Telefon in psihoanaliza

The paper explores the implications of the introduction of telephone at the turn of the century and the impact it has made. It takes the cue from the famous anecdote in Proust's Rememberance of Things Past, when the narrator speaks for the first time with his grandmother by the telephone. Proust lucidly traces the 'ontological' gap opened by the intervention of the telephone and the way it cannot be cured. The second cue is taken from Walter Benjamin's memories of childhood and his account of the way the telephone introduced a new kind of voice. The third and final cue is taken from Freud and his various uses of telephone, most remarkably as the metaphore of the transmission of the unconscious. The paper explores the nature of this new voice and its 'ontological' implications, and argues that it can be taken as a red line through the rise of modernism and the emergence of psychoanalysis.Tekst raziskuje implikacije uvedbe telefona ob prelomu stoletja in učinke, ki jih je to povzročilo. Za izhodišče si vzame slovito prigodo iz Proustovega Iskanja izgubljenega časa, ko pripovedovalec prvič govori s svojo babico po telefonu. Proust nadvse lucidno oriše 'ontološko' vrzel, ki jo je odprl poseg telefona in ki je ni mogoče zaceliti. Drugo izhodišče predstavljajo otroški spomini Walterja Benjamina in njegov opis načina, kako je telefon uvedel novo vrsto glasu. Tretje izhodišče je Freud in njegove raznolike uporabe telefona, predvsem kot metafore za transmisijo nezavednega. Tekst raziskuje naravo tega novega glasu in njegove 'ontološke' implikacije ter zagovarja tezo, da ga je mogoče vzeti za rdečo nit za vzpon modernizma in vznik psihoanalize