Philosopher and cultural critic, Slovenia
Slawoj Žižek, born 1949 in Ljubljana, is a philosopher, cultural critic and non-practising psychoanalyst. Studies and doctorate (1981) in philosophy at the University of Ljubljana; then studies and doctorate (1985) in psychoanalysis at the University of Paris-VIII. Žižek was active in the resistance movement in the 1980s and stood as a presidential candidate in the first free elections in the Republic of Slovenia in 1990. Žižek became known for his translation of Jacques Lacan's thought and Marxism into popular culture and social criticism. In the last thirty years he has participated in over 550 international philosophical, psychoanalytical and cultural-critical symposia around the world and has made a name for himself as the "Elvis of cultural theory" and the "superstar of the New Left". He has published over twenty books that have been translated into many languages. Žižek is also Professor of Philosophy at the University of Ljubljana and Director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London.
Tuesday, 14. June 2016, 18:30 – 20:00 h
At the University of Zurich, Rämistrasse 71, 8006 Zurich, KOH-B-10
The cruel irony of anti-Eurocentrism is that one criticizes Europe at the very historical moment when global capitalism no longer needs “European values” in order to function smoothly and is doing quite well with authoritarian “alternate modernity” – in short, one tends to reject “European values” at the very moment when, critically reinterpreted, many of them (egalitarianism, fundamental rights, welfare state…) can serve as a weapon against capitalist globalization.