SUBSTANCE IS SUBJECT, Mladen Dolar, EUSP, 04.12.2018

Hegel famously maintained that no philosophy can be summed up in a single proposition or a first principle. As he said in the Phenomenology of Spirit: “Any so-called basic proposition or principle of philosophy, if true, is also false, just because it is only a principle.” Its truth can only lie in its development, its deployment, ultimately in a system, not in the assessment of some foundational proposition. Still, once in his career he nevertheless sinned against this view and proposed such a foundational proposition of his own philosophy: “In my view, which must be justified by the exposition of the system itself, everything hangs on apprehending and expressing the truth not merely as substance but also equally as subject.” Or briefly: ‘Substance is subject’.
The lecture will try to explore the value and the impact of this seemingly very simple sentence. Why would Hegel choose this particular proposition on which to pin the fate of his philosophy and on which everything depends? One will have to consider the way in which the notion of substance, the key concept of philosophy since its inception, has been traditionally understood and Hegel’s proposal of the radical criticism of the traditional notion of substance. One will have to investigate the particular new way in which Hegel conceived the notion of subject, going against the grain of what is usually understood by subjectivity (and also against the grain of the current discussion of ‘correlationism’). Finally, the lecture will consider the big philosophical divide between idealism and materialism, the central battleground of philosophy, and how Hegel’s recasting of substance changes the very parameters of this divide.
The lecture will proceed by an immanent reading of Hegel, focused on the Preface to the Phenomenology of Spirit, but it will also touch upon some contemporary debates (object oriented ontology, speculative realism etc.)

[@rh59872]

What an excellent, accessible, and rich lecture. Thank you for uploading

[@francisschurmann3543]

Much of this lecture appears in print (and in more detail) in Dolar's chapter in "Subject Lessons," edited by Zizek and Sbriglia, if anyone would like to cite it or look further into it.

[@lendrestapas2505]

book name?

[@francisschurmann3543]

@@lendrestapas2505 Subject Lessons: Hegel, Lacan, and the Future of Materialism

[@okaytoletgo]

@@francisschurmann3543 Thank you very much for this citation and good wishes from VT.

[@nikk9277]

I gained so much from this and am very grateful to have access to it - thank you. Dolar’s pedagogical approach and elaborations are so instructive for someone who has found philosophy late in life like myself. Thank you again.

[@pritch481]

A superb presentation, followed by a very interesting discussion.

[@vitoroliveirajorge368]

Remarkable lesson.

[@dubbelkastrull]

7:05 Dogmatism
21:35 Hegel quote on matter
43:26 Teleology
52:27 bookmark

[@Philiopantheon82]

This is gold

[@Elizabeth-tk1ee]

Ни перевода во время лекции , ни Русских СУБТИТРОВ! Как же так??? все-таки в Питере лекция, а это в России ! Не все английский изучали как иностранный, другие языки тоже существуют!
И зачем вступление на русском тоже не ясно, если потом только английский, а в зале его понимают

[@asdfghjk6493]

He looks like Mike from Breaking Bad

[@ConfusedDom]

30 mins in and there’s a Zizek reference! The intellectual pleb/ fanboy that I am can now rest easy knowing I am in safe hands

[@Dragoull]

They are close friends and colleagues

[@miralupa8841]

3:30

[@miralupa8841]

2:43:00 transgression

[@brunoalvescoelho4476]

If irony is meaning the oposite of what you said it can't be something and its opposite at the same time. The choice of irony in relation to Freud's joke on cracow and lemberg to represent hegel's position is highly problematic.

[@brunoalvescoelho4476]

I've made this comment before Mladen elaborated on it answering someone's question. After that my comment becomes kinda obvious.

[@brunoalvescoelho4476]

Where is Mladen's stupid book about awakening. It was supposed to be released already.

[@brunoalvescoelho4476]

@TheBmo4538 why is that?

[@thomassimmons1950]

Obviously smart bunch. Strikes me as some what tragic however, to here European dialects peppered with the ubiquitous American addiction to using the inane like...like...like to
bridge every phrasing. Almost makes me wish the Germans won the WAR....there are those that think they may have regardless.

[@whatnever]

hahahahaha

[@emmanueloluga9770]

WTF tho lmao

[@dustiny.334]

Yea like this ain't it

[@emmanueloluga9770]

@@dustiny.334 forreal lol. Homie went full social darwinist from 0-100 real quick

[@dustiny.334]

@@emmanueloluga9770 he said that shit with his whole chest too lol like he did sumn