The Lacanian-Hegelian reworking of dialectical materialism according to Slavoj Žižek

Abstract

Unlike the vast majority of authors who have applied Lacanian theory to philosophical discipline in recent decades, the use of this theory by Slavoj Žižek is not framed within the horizons established by post-structuralism, postmodernity or deconstruction, understood as attacks against the great philosophical discourses of metaphysics and modernity. His approach is an attempt, quite conservative in the end, to reposition Philosophy as a discipline founded on Truth. To achieve this, Žižek reconceptualizes the (science of) Truth from a new Lacanian-Hegelian reworking of dialectical materialism that develops the approaches of the first Althusser in a different way to Badiou. This article presents the main contributions of the Slovenian philosopher to dialectical materialism and argues that they amount to an abandonment of historical materialism (on which supposedly dialectical materialism should be based) and a return to Hegel’s absolute idealism.