Lacan

[csquared]

What do you guys think of Lacan?

[hatzel]

As nobody else seems to want to answer this: I have noticed that anything or anybody remotely associated with the post-structuralist 'school' of thought is...ah...let's just say far from popular amongst many leftists, not least on this site. I'm not sure if there are all that many post-anarchists on here who would defend post-structuralism, but, that said, the hostility that seems to be directed towards them for their 'pseudo-intellectual anti-scientific nonsense' or whatever it is people say suggests to me that they may not be all that forward in coming out of the woodwork...:rolleyes:

[Kotze]

Lacan had that brilliant Mirror Stage Theory — that is, how looking into a mirror is a big moment for babies, a nodal point if you will, and how this experience is essential for forming self-awareness.

And this is also why people born blind don't have any selOH SNAP

Does anybody want to defend his Mathemes?

[hatzel]

Hehe, I was going to say 'just ask Kotze about it', knowing you'd be all critical, but I didn't know if you'd be happy with my mentioning you. Still, you're here now, so I can admit it now. You and jammoe, you and jammoe...:glare:

[Ocean Book]

I think it's a shame that leftists ignore post-whatever thought completely instead of using them as tools inside of a positive normative framework.

[chegitz guevara]

Just because something comes later, doesn't mean it's valuable. There was an Italian communist, Sebastiano Timpanaro (or something like that) who wrote a decent book defending Marxist philosophy. In it, he critiqued a particular, anti-materialism line of Western Marxism, by showing what it's absurd logical conclusion would be.

That absurdity later was expressed as post-modernism. Post-modernis is nothing but an affirmative action program for philosophers. It has no valid use except to show what stupidity humans can come up with.

[Hoipolloi Cassidy]

Post-modernism... has no valid use except to show what stupidity humans can come up with.

You should be grateful...

[GX.]

What exactly constitutes postmodernism and how does Lacan fit into this project? And if he is straight forward nonsense why have so many feminist and Marxist scholars found elements of psychoanalytic theory to be useful or engaging?

[Hoipolloi Cassidy]

What exactly constitutes postmodernism and how does Lacan fit into this project? And if he is straight forward nonsense why have so many feminist and Marxist scholars found elements of psychoanalytic theory to be useful or engaging?

Because he's the voice of the voiceless. What more could you possibly ask?