A New German Idealism

Adrian Johnston offers a first-of-its-kind sustained critical response to Slavoj Žižek’s Less Than Nothing and Absolute Recoil, in which Žižek returns to Hegel. Johnston develops what he calls transcendental materialism, an antireductive materialism capable of preserving and advancing the legacies of the Hegelian, Marxian, and Freudian traditions.

Johnston Adrian :

Adrian Johnston (PhD, Philosophy, Stony Brook; Diploma, Psychoanalysis, Emory) is Professor of Philosophy at the University of New Mexico and Assistant Teaching Analyst at Emory Psychoanalytic Institute, a division of the Emory University School of Medecine. He is the author of Time Driven: Metapsychology and the Splitting of the Drive (Northwestern, 2005), Žižek’s Ontology: A Transcendental Materialist Theory of Subjectivity (Northwestern, 2008), Political Transformations: The Cadence of Change (Northwestern, 2009), Prolegomena to Any Future Materialism, Volume One: The Outcome of Contemporary French Philosophy (Northwestern, 2013), Adventures in Transcendental Materialism: Dialogues with Contemporary Thinkers (Edinburgh, 2014), and co-author (with Catherine Malabou) of Self and Emotional Life: Philosophy, Psychoanalysis, and Neuroscience (Columbia, 2013). I chose him as a reader for his interests in contemporary continental philosophy and political theory, Marxism, and new materialisms.Adrian Johnston is a professor in and chair of the Department of Philosophy at the University of New Mexico and a faculty member at the Emory Psychoanalytic Institute in Atlanta. His many books include Žižek’s Ontology: A Transcendental Materialist Theory of Subjectivity (2008); Prolegomena to Any Future Materialism, vol. 1: The Outcome of Contemporary French Philosophy (2013); and, with Catherine Malabou, Self and Emotional Life: Philosophy, Psychoanalysis, and Neuroscience (2013, Columbia University Press). With Todd McGowan and Slavoj Žižek, he is a coeditor of the book series Diaeresis at Northwestern University Press.

Mladen Dolar, University of Ljubljana:
Ten years ago Adrian Johnston published Žižek’s Ontology, a path-breaking work, the first book that dealt at length with the basic tenets of Žižek’s oeuvre with all due seriousness, meticulousness, and critical perspicacity. Ten years later A New German Idealism brings not merely a much-needed updated sequel to that book, taking into account the major works that Žižek has published in the meantime, but a new critical engagement that goes further and deeper, addressing the core of the legacy of German idealism for our times. A rare case of what philosophical dialogue should be.

Thomas Paul Brockelman, author of Žižek and Heidegger: The Question Concerning Techno-Capitalism:
A New German Idealism marks the most important step yet in Johnston’s efforts to translate Žižek’s importance for philosophical thought. It is, in fact, as ambitious as Žižek’s own claim to recast German Idealism for our time. Johnston’s excellent understanding of the idealist tradition in Germany (as strong as his inside understanding of post-Freudian psychoanalysis!) combined with his comprehensive understanding of the recent secondary literature makes his treatment an absolutely indispensable supplement to Žižek’s own work.

Ray Brassier, author of Nihil Unbound: Enlightenment and Extinction:
Through critical dialogue with Slavoj Žižek, Johnston has developed his own original philosophical vision. Countering the temptation to ontologize negativity, Johnston roots it in the contingent facticity of conflictual organic phenomena. The result is a defiantly nonmystical dialectical materialism that manages to reconcile Darwinian naturalism with German idealism. It is a uniquely sophisticated philosophical achievement.

Todd McGowan, author of Capitalism and Desire: The Psychic Cost of Free Markets:
A New German Idealism offers a crucial intervention in the contemporary theoretical scene. Žižek is perhaps the most important living philosopher, and Johnston clarifies his thought on Hegel in an incredibly lucid way, while also introducing certain points of disagreement. In this important book, Johnston is able to give a detailed history of German Idealism while always keeping a theoretical idea in the background.

Bruno Bosteels, author of The Actuality of Communism:
Ever since his first book, aptly titled Time Driven, Adrian Johnston in a way has been preparing himself for this summa of his philosophy. In an impressive synthesis that would take other mortals a whole lifetime to write, he brings together Hegel, Lacan, and Žižek to demonstrate that today's materialism is actually the recommencement of German Idealism.

Joan Copjec, author of Read My Desire: Lacan Against the Historicists:
In almost real time, Johnston has chronicled Žižek's ground-breaking interventions in German Idealism with just enough distance to permit them to take hold of our imaginations and gather questions. As Žižek's recent work enters a profound new phase, Johnston demonstrates here that he is up to the challenges it presents. Combining clear, pedagogical appreciation with healthy doses of friendly fire, A New German Idealism unravels the work of one of the most important thinkers of our time in more ways than one. Not just a primer, but a stand-alone work of its own.

Slavoj Žižek, author of Less Than Nothing and Absolute Recoil:
A New German Idealism is the culmination of Johnston's decade-long dialogue with my work. Although we share the same basic orientation (Lacan and German idealism), we differ in some central points: Johnston privileges evolutionary biology as a scientific reference, while I privilege quantum physics. Not only am I proud to have such a highly qualified partner in the debate; I also think that, in his reaction to my work, Johnston touches on the key question of today's philosophy: how to move beyond a transcendental approach (in all its versions, inclusive of deconstruction) without retreating into naive realism (in the form of object-oriented ontology). Johnston's new book is thus indispensable reading for all those interested in the state of philosophy today at a time when its fate is challenged by the latest achievements in the brain sciences. In short, it is indispensable for all those who want to think in the authentic sense of the term.