Missed connections

In general I would say that I am interested in apocalyptic philosophy.  In other words, philosophies which utilize theological notions of end, rupture, promise, etc.  So I find people like Zizek, Badiou and Meillassoux very interesting.  But it seems risky to do a PhD exclusively on someone who is releasing a movie and speaking at Occupy Wall Street, so I’ve tried to find similar ideas in previous generations.  What I find surprising is the complete disconnect between the current reiteration of these ideas and earlier writers.  You look at someone like Zizek and he is basically attempting the same thing as Bloch, but you almost never see Bloch footnoted in Zizek (I think it may actually be never, but I haven’t done an exhaustive search).  And no one other than Roland Boer seems to be doing much to address this.  Thompson’s introduction to Atheism in Christinaity was good and Alberto Toscano picks up non-synchronicity in Fanaticism, in a way that points towards Zizek and Badiou, but these connections still remain largely unexplored.

Advertisement