Objective Fictions

Rethinks objectivity and fiction in contemporary philosophy, psychoanalysis and Marxism – beyond the realism–nominalism divide

• Rethinks the concept of objectivity through its relation to fiction beyond their mere opposition
• Conceptualises 'objective fictions'
• Highlights a shared background underpinning realist and nominalist approaches to the relation between subjectivity and objectivity
• Revitalises modern/contemporary philosophical currents, psychoanalytic theory and the Marxist critique of political economy beyond the realism-nominalism divide
• Includes contributions from a mix of renowned thinkers and from the new generation, including Slavoj Žižek, Mladen Dolar, Frank Ruda and Samo Tomšič

Relying on contemporary continental philosophy, psychoanalytic theory and the Marxist tradition, this volume moves beyond the deadlock between nominalism and realism. It rethinks the relationship between objectivity and fiction through engaging with a series of 'objective fictions', including fetishes, semblances, lies, rumours, sophistry, fantasies, and conspiracy theories, among other phenomena. What all these phenomena exhibit are paradoxical entanglements of subjectivity with objectivity and of fiction with truth.

When it comes to questions of objectivity in current philosophical debates and public discourse, we are witnessing the re-emergence and growing importance of two classical, opposed approaches: nominalism and (metaphysical) realism. Today’s nominalist stances, by absolutizing intersubjectivity, are moving towards the abandonment of the very notion of truth and objective reality. By contrast, today’s realist positions, including those bound up with scientific discourse, insist on the category of the object-in-itself as irreducible to any kind of subjective mediation. However, despite their seeming mutual exclusivity, both approaches share fundamental presuppositions, namely, those of neat separations between the spheres of subjectivity and objectivity as well as between the realms of fiction and truth.