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backsliding into a sort of 8antian idealism and thereby failing to remain faithful to a genuinematerialist standpoint9 /interestingly, inWhat Is Philosophy?, Deleu e and ;uattari insinuatesomething similar in the course of briefly making reference to (adiou ?an one make sense of this +acillation, this willingness to fa+orablyin+oke (adious central theoretical"conceptual opposition while simultaneously seeming todenounce it@

The critique of (adious alleged 8antianism hinges specifically upon what iekpercei+es as the perpetuation of a rigid +ersion of the 8antian distinction between the)regulati+e* and the )constituti+e%* 'ccording to 8ant, there are two ways in which one canemploy the ideas of reason /as opposed, of course, to the concepts of the understandinggrounded in a relation to empirical intuitions2: These ideas can either be mistaken for references to really e!isting entities /i%e%, an illegitimate, baseless )hypostati ation* of reasons ideas as constituti+e of an e!tra"ideational reality2 or they can be treated asine+itable consequences of the workings of human cognition that, regardless, are nothingmore than eternally unfulfilled hypotheses /i%e%, )as if* principles depri+ed of any trueontological weight, but always threatening to generate the decepti+e, beguiling phantasm of their ob5ecti+e e!istence2%A .ne of the central epistemological lessons of the Critique of PureReason is that human reason is continually tempted into allowing itself to fall prey to thealluring metaphysical illusions resulting from a hypostati ation of the ideas of reason asconstituti+e rather than regulati+e% The task of the firstCritique is, therefore, to keep reasonrestrained within the )limits of possible e!perience* by forbidding any mo+e to ontologi eideas pointing beyond the spheres of intuition and the understanding%

iek presents 8ants practical philosophy as, in part, an application of thisepistemological distinction between the constituti+e and the regulati+e to ethical matters:The moral law, as epitomi ed by the categorical imperati+e, is impossible for finite, flesh"and"blood human agents to obey perfectly or fulfill e!hausti+ely%B This law functions in a

regulati+e )as if* capacity, fore+er guiding the e!ercise of practical reason while nonethelessne+er becoming entirely actuali ed within the realm of human reality itself /thus purportedlyupholding the strict separation of noumenal and phenomenal domains characteristic of 8ants philosophy2% ieks complaint is that, supposedly in contrast to $acan, (adiou triesto maintain an unbridgeable di+ision between the )Truth* /vrit2 emerging through itsrespecti+e e+entCpro+ocati+ely declaring himself a latonist, (adiou affirms, against thedominant tendencies of twentieth century thought, that philosophical Truth per se is timelessand uni+ersal 1 Cand the ostensibly interminable task, assigned to what (adiou terms the

)sub5ect of the e+ent,* of re"inscribing thevrit to which its a sub5ect back within theontological substantiality of being and its corresponding forms of knowledge3 C)#or (adiou,

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fidelity to the =+ent in+ol+es the work of discerning its traces, the work which is by definitionne+er doneE in spite of all claims to the contrary, he thus relies on a kind of the 8antianregulati+e &dea, on the final end /the full con+ersion of the =+ent into (eing2 which one canonly approach in an endless process%*6 The finite material world, stuck within the corrupt

defiles of temporality, is always found to be lacking or somehow less than the rarifieddimension of e+ents and their infinite, eternal truths% &n other words, the material is inferior and subordinate with respect to the immaterial% How else ought one to construe those manymoments when (adiou underscores that the e+ent is situated at the le+el of )non"being,*that the e+ent isnt included in being as such@7

&n the foreword to the second edition ofFor they know not what they do /1BB12, iek+igorously presses home this critique of (adiou% 'fter conceding that $acan and (adioushare a belief in the e!istence of certain occurrences when, from apparently out of nowhere,a )radical cutFrupture* shatters the current symbolic order /i%e%, $acans act and (adiouse+ent2,9 iek delineates in detail his indictment of the lingering 8antianism hauntingLtreet lvne ent :

?an we imagine a more direct application of the 8antian distinction betweenconstituti+e principles /a priori categories which directly constitute reality2 andregulati+e ideas, which should be applied to reality only in theas if mode /we shouldact as if reality is sustained by a teleological orderEas if there is a ;od and animmortal soul, etc%2@ Ghen (adiou asserts the 4unnameable as the resistance point of the eal, the 4indi+isible remainder which pre+ents the 4forceful transformation thatwould conclude its work, this assertion is strictly correlati+e to theas if mode of thepost"e+ental work of forcing the eal: it is because of this remainder that the work of truth can ne+er lea+e this conditional mode behind%

and that, )the gap which separates the pure multiplicity of the eal from the appearing of a4world whose co"ordinates are gi+en in a set of categories which predetermine its hori on isthe +ery gap which, in 8ant, separates the Thing"in"itself from our phenomenal realityCthatis, from the way things appear to us as ob5ects of our e!perience%*A ;i+en ieks owna+owed fidelity to 8ant /or, at least, to certain aspects of 8antian thought2, the labeling of (adiou as a 8antian by iek sounds a bit like an instance of the pro+erbial pot calling thekettle black% 't first glance, its difficult to grasp e!actly why iek would ob5ect to lingeringtraces of 8antianism in (adious philosophy% &f (adiou really does maintain a rigid dichotomybetween the truth of the e+ent qua regulati+e"noumenal, as an infinitely +anishing pointguiding concrete acti+ity, +ersus beingqua constituti+e"phenomenal, it seems that iekhimself also preser+es the same sort of opposition apropos a theory of sub5ecti+ity% Ghat

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renders (adious alleged recourse to this sort of dualism comparati+ely more ob5ectionable@ore importantly, is he guilty as charged@ &f (adiou indeed still leans against an un5ustifiableidealism, then does his system actually need, for its e!planatory purposes, to besupplemented by a materialist"style $acanian psychoanalytic metapsychology@ &f so, what

crucial analytic concepts are missing from (adious theoretical edifice, and what would bethe consequences of reincorporating these concepts back within the register of (adiouianontology@

"art ne /rom Spurious to enuine In!init#

.ne could elegantly encapsulate the essence of (adious system as a consequentunfolding of the full ramifications contained in $acans pronouncement that )L!utre ne"iste

pas* /)The big .ther does not e!ist*2,1B an unfolding e!ecuted according to a particular interpretation of the register of the eal% The $acanian phrase )#rand !utre * is oftensynonymous with the notion of the )symbolic order* as the trans"indi+idual set of languages,institutions, codes, norms, and practices go+erning human reality, namely, as anomnipresent 0ymbolic framework of en+eloping mediation%1 This $I+i"0traussian sort of structure generates and organi es, among other things, the forms of knowledge a+ailable toepistemological agents embedded within a socio"linguistic matri!% 'nd yet, especially after his lo+e affair with structuralism cools starting in the A9Bs, $acan repeatedly stresses that

this symbolic order is necessarily lacking and incomplete, that the big .ther is constituti+ely)barred%*11 &n the opening lines from his A

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si'h *+C(adiou would argue that the eal of being in and of itself, as an infinite series of multiplicities without end, is a result of its potentially ine!haustible 0ymbolic density% &n other words, one of the reasons why one cannot )say it all* /for both $acan and (adiou, the sayingof the truth is always a )half"saying* Li$dire M372, a reason why knowledge of being remains

fore+er incomplete, isnt due to the e!istence of special aspects of being with the supposedproperty of an inherent resistance to representation% &nstead, the infinite facets of beingentail that knowledge can represent being in an infinite number of +arying configurations/thus leading to the o+erloading effect of signifying superabundance identified earlier +ia the0chelling"inspired recasting of the #reudian dream"na+elCsee section three, chapter twel+e2%

&n (adious account, the e!cess of being o+er knowledge /dis2appears as a )+oid*/vide2 within the )state of the situation*39 established by a gi+en epistemological order% Ghat)counts* for the symbolic order of knowledge are the finite entities established on the basisof its own +arious and sundry conceptual criteria%3< 'ny yet, since the infinity of beingin+ariably o+erflows the limited and limiting strictures of epistemological strategies of representational containment, knowledge, as $acan puts it, )holds onto the real* of beingprecisely"yet"parado!ically through its +ery omissions% (adiou e!presses this same idea inestablishing an equi+alence between e!cesses of being and +oids in knowledge /although, itmerits mentioning that (adiou admits the con+erse as well, namely, that epistemologicalrepresentation is sometimes in e!cess of ontological presentation within a gi+en situation2%3>

He also e!plicitly interprets the $acanian eal as a 0ymbolic impasse% 3A ?onsequently,(adious manner of furthering these select $acanian themes amounts to contending that thebig .ther of the symbolic order /as the order responsible for the knowledge establishingspecific states of situations2 is barred and incomplete by +irtue of its conditioneddependency on an ontological eal whose infinite comple!ityFinconsistency, as animmanent, immediate gi+en /and not, following 8ant, as a transcendent absence2,nonetheless continually e+ades being captured within the net of a fi!ed cluster of conceptualsets%6B

.n se+eral occasions, $acan adamantly insists on the importance of distinguishingbetween )knowledge* /savoir 2 and )truth* /vrit2%6 This distinction is also crucial for (adiou%61 &n highlighting the gap that fore+er separates the eal of being from the 0ymbolicof knowledgeCas 5ust shown, this dehiscence isnt at all comparable to 8ants dichotomiesbetween ontology and epistemology as well as between the noumenal and the phenomenalC(adiou denies the possibility of e+er reaching )absolute knowledge* as an encyclopedia"style closure wherein representational structures achie+e an infinitude perfectly isomorphic

with that e!hibited by being% rior toLtre et lvne ent , in ,horie du su-et , (adiouformulates this position thus:

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lunivers est fer . total. et il y a de lindistin#ua&le stri't. 'ar vous nave/ pas. danslunivers. asse/ de no s propres pour distin#uer ses parties0 1u &ien on peut tou-oursdistin#uer. ais alors lunivers ne fait pas tout. il y a de le"'2s. par quoi vous faitesadvenir du no propre au$del( du tout suppos0 Lunivers 'ontient tou-ours plus de

'hoses quil ne peut en no er selon 'es 'hoses e0 )e l( son ine"isten'e %63

;i+en the ine+itable and irreducible e!cess of the ontological o+er the epistemological, a(adiouian e+ent can be defined, in much too concise a fashion, as an occurrence thatre+eals, in a unique and particularly pronounced fashion, a certain instance of a discrepancybetween the order of knowledge and the domain of being proper% 's (adiou puts it in hisstudy of 0aint aul, an e+ent is a happening that, in relation to the language of anestablished system of knowledge, ) puts lan#ua#e into deadlo'k %*66 Thus, following (adiou,

one could say that an e+ent points out a specific )hole* /trou2 in the fabric of a gi+en state of knowledgeE an e+ent re+eals groupings of )singular multiplicities* sustaining a gi+en situationwithout, for all that, being e!plicitly included in this same situation as counted elements%67

=+ents come to display how ontological surpluses /as the e!cess of beings infinitemultiplicities o+er finite systems of representations2 subsist as egregious elisions at theepistemological le+el%69 (adiouian )Truth"with"a"capital"T,* as opposed to knowledge and its)+eridicalities* /i%e%, (adious )vridi'it* as a fact or claim legitimi ed on the basis of apresent epistemological order, as a piece of information +ouched for within the encyclopedia

of e!tant knowledge6C)The encyclopedia is adimension of knowledge, not of truth, the latter creating a hole in knowledge%*6A

iek latches onto the (adiouian conception of vrit as the telltale sign of abacksliding into 8ants old distinctionsC)(adious 8antianism is discernible precisely in theway he limits the scope of the TruthN TruthN can e!ist only as the infinite, incessant effortto discern in the situation the traces of the Truth"=+ent, e!actly homologous with the 8antianinfinite ethical effort%*7B Ondoubtedly, ieks moti+ations for re5ecting this aspect of a8antianism supposedly discernable in (adious thought are Hegelian in inspiration% The)8antian infinite ethical effort* would be, from a Hegelian perspecti+e, a specificmanifestation of what Hegel refers to as )bad* or )spurious infinity*7 C)0omething becomesan otherE this other is itself somewhatE therefore it likewise becomes an other, and so onad infinitu %*71 Hegel then introduces his definition of the spurious infinite:

This Infinity is the wrong or negati+e infinity: it is only a negation of a finite: but thefinite rises again the same as e+er, and is ne+er got rid of and absorbed% &n other words, this infinite only e!presses the ou#ht$ to$&e elimination of the finite% The

progression to infinity ne+er gets further than a statement of the contradiction in+ol+edin the finite, +i % that it is somewhat as well as somewhat else% &t sets up with endlessiteration the alteration between these two terms, each of which calls up the other%73

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Oltimately, bad infinity is simply an infinite regression, a 0isyphean task of attempting toreach the infinite through the endlessly reiterated gesture of monotonously adding one moreelement to a finite series of preceding elements% ;enuine infinity cannot be acquiredthrough finite succession% -o quantity of additional elements in the series /i%e%, what Hegelcalls the )somewhat*2 will e+er break through the barrier fore+er separating finite particularityfrom infinite uni+ersality% &n the most ob+ious e!ample, counting from one to infinity is aninfinite labor% Howe+er, such a labor, as inherently incapable of achie+ing its endConly itsfailure is infiniteCis, in Hegels +iew, )bad* or )spurious%* &n this same section of theLo#i' ,Hegel proceeds to chide the practical philosophies of 8ant and #ichte for ha+ing gottenstuck in this unproducti+e limboC)The infinity of reflection here discussed is only anatte pt to reach the true infinity, a wretched neither"one"thing"nor"anotherN This stage was ne+er passed by the systems of 8ant and #ichte, so far as ethics are concerned%* 76 8ants talk of )the road of endless progress towards holiness* 77 as a mo+ement that )is impossible of e!ecution in any gi+en time*79 certainly in+ites this reading% 8ant indeed concei+es of theinfinite as a separate transcendence from which the finite is permanently barred% 8antianinfinity )e!ists* only in fictions of a future fore+er 5ust beyond the +isible hori on%

's iek himself surmises, perhaps the best 8antian reply to this Hegelian line of criticism is nonchalantly to say )0o what@* and shrug it off as of little consequence%7< Ghy

shouldnt one portray, for e!ample, moral progress toward a )holiness* prescribed by reason/or, in (adious case, the process of inscribing a truth back within the situation of being2 asan infinite task@ iek answers by claiming that Hegels crucial mo+e here is, as elsewhere,the elegantly simple ontologi ation of 8ants schema% &n so doing, )3e#els 'ritique si ply openly states and assu es the parado"es 'onstitutive of 4ants position %*7> &n other words,whereas the 8antian metaphysics of morals sometimes speaks of innerworldly humanmorality as a matter of pursuing a perpetually deferred perfection infinitely receding aseternally ( venir , the Hegelian position, according to iek, is to maintain that the full

accomplishment of morality in the present is nothing other than the disruption of phenomenal reality by the gap between finite immanence and infinite transcendence% #or 8ant, the infinite, here identified in terms of the pure moral law and its ethical ideals astotally and flawlessly actuali ed, e!ists, at least for the human agent, in a pro5ected timealways yet"to"come% #or the iekian Hegel, the 8antian dehiscence between noumena andphenomena, as sustained in the immediate gi+en"ness of the concrete present, is itself thetrue reality of practical )infinity%* &n this conte!t, the salient difference is that between, on theone hand, infinity as a permanently deferred possibility in the future /i%e%, )bad* or )spurious*

infinity2, and, on the other hand, infinity as a gi+en actuality in the presence of the present/i%e%, )good* or )genuine* infinity2% iek distinguishes between 8ant and Hegel precisely

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along this subtle fault line, and he unambiguously situates (adiou on the side of the former%This particular critical strategy with respect to (adiou neglects some of the most basicfeatures of (adious system%

(adiouian infinity is diametrically opposed to the )bad infinity* that Hegel attributes to8antian practical philosophy% The whole point of (adious ontology is that infinity is always"already here, on the +ery surface of presentation as the sole ground/lessness2 of e!istence,rather than functioning as some sort of ephemeral fullness"yet"to"come ho+ering perpetuallyout of reach on a future hori on /with (adiou likewise contending that contemporary thoughtmust conduct itself under the 5urisdiction of a seculari ation of infinity as the brute banality of being2%7A The fundamental thesis of (adiouian ontology is the proposition that being quabeing is an infinite multiplicity admitting neither, at its base, indi+isible atomistic constituentsnor, at its summit, a unified, encompassing totalityC)il ny a que du ultiple infini. qui prsente du ultiple infini. et lunique point darrt de 'ette prsentation ne prsente rien0 Il sa#it ulti e ent du vide. et non de l%n0 )ieu est ort. au 'oeur de la prsentation %*9B

's obser+ed, this ontological a!iom sharply separates (adiou from 8ant /the abo+ee!ample of this break being that, according to (adiou, ontologys irreducibility toepistemology is due to the presentation of beings infinite multiplicity e!ceeding, instead of withdrawing as absent from, the finite limits of knowledge and its representations2%0ub5ecti+ity, for instance, isnt stuck, as in the metaphysics of morals, endlessly chasing

after the infinitequa a regulati+e ideal that absolutely resists being incarnated in the present%iek frequently portrays 8ant as a key inno+ati+e founder of the now"familiar philosophicaltheme of the finitude of the sub5ect%9 The actuality of sub5ecti+ity amounts to its e!perientialconfinement to an inconsistent and incomplete phenomenal reality% -oumenal rationality, inits apparent consistency and completeness, is merely a pro5ection emanating from theframe of this flawed, finite perspecti+e% That is to say, for ieks 8ant, the accomplishedinfinite /whether theoretical or practical2, defined simply as an e!it from the limits constituti+eof e!perience, is a spectral absence generated by the acti+ities of the finite sub5ect% .n a

certain le+el, (adiou in+erts this 8antian theme% The infinite isnt an( venir lure arising fromwithin the confines of finite sub5ecti+ity and its circumstancesE it isnt a by"product of afoundational, unsurpassable finitude% .n the contrary, the finite sub5ect is, according to(adiou, a subsidiary component or moment of the infinite91C)' sub5ect isN this finite pointthrough which, in its infinite being, truth itself passes%*93 .nce again, the term vrit returnsas the cru! of the discussion%

.ne point in particular must be made as clear as possible before proceeding anyfurther: &n (adious work, there are grounds for carefully distinguishing between Truth"as"

place and truths"as"+eridicalities"to"come /i%e%, Truth +ersus truths2, with (adious notion of )forcing* /for5a#e2 e!plaining the link between these two poles96 /e+en if (adiou himself

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doesnt carefully draw out such a set of distinctions in an open and deliberate manner, hearguably ought to considering his o+erall pro5ect2% &n fact, clarifying (adious position inresponse to ieks critique requires superimposing a tripartite distinction between Truth"as"place, truths"as"+eridicalities"to"come, and truth"processes onto the (adiouian system /the

third con5oining the first two as the locale of their intersection2% .ne cannot ignore the factthat (adiou sometimes e!plicitly distinguishes between a )formal concept of Truth* /i%e%, thephilosophical notion of Truth as an eternally possible operation2 and the plurality of determinate truths resulting from (adious four )generic procedures* /i%e%, science, art,politics, and lo+e2%97 (adiou remarks, ) La 'at#orie philosophique de 6rit est par elle$ e +ide%7lle op2re. ais ne prsente rien %*99 He then insists that, )la 'at#orie de

6rit8 nest l#iti e quautant que la 'at#orie est vide. par'e quelle nest quuneopration%*9< Truth"as"place /i%e%, the space ofvrit2 is simply the eternal gap, the fore+er

open rift, between, on the one hand, the epistemologically indigestible infinity of entities andrelations bequeathed /by +irtue of the absence of limiting boundaries that would presumablybe established by an e!istent .ne"'ll2 to the structures of knowledge, and, on the other hand, any possible states of knowledge as finite representational configurations or locali edconstellations of being/s2C(adiou identifies the constraints of knowledge /savoir 2 asresponsible for rendering the situations in which being presents itself as finite%9> There willalways be +oids in knowledge, since an e!hausti+e rendering of beings infinite multiplicity is,according to (adiou, necessarily impossible 9AC)the infinite part of the situation can ne+er be

presented in itself as infinite%*

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dichotomy condemning phenomenal reality perpetually to stri+e in +ain after the +anishingpoint of regulati+e idealityC)nous ha&itions linfinie 'o e notre s-our a&solu ent plat %*A

The forcing acti+ities of sub5ects of e+ents, sub5ects that are faithful to named truths, makesit possible for certain truths, as discrete, locali ed +oids within an epistemological present,

later to achie+e entry into the domain of accepted knowledge% ' 8antian regulati+e idealin+ol+es something that it is impossible to instantiate, some element that is necessarilylacking within situated realityE this sort of ideal is always and in+ariably absent% ?on+ersely,(adiouian truths ha+e, in the mode of the futur antrieur , the potential e+entually to becomefulfilled, that is, to gain )referents* or )meanings* in a new, subsequent epistemological stateof affairs% Truths can pass o+er from absence to presence, from e!clusion to inclusion%

&n these same +ein, the argument could easily be made that, when (adiou refers toparticular truths /in addition to the general philosophical category of Truth2 as )infinite,*AB thetemptation to read this as an endorsement of a conception of truths as transcendent,otherworldly, quasi"noumenal etherealities must decisi+ely be resisted% (adious qualificationof truths as infinite refers to /phrased in $acanese2 their potential 0ymbolic density, not their disembodied detachment from the world in the mode of rarified, empty formalitiescategorically opposed to representational actuali ation% The militant sub5ect of the truth"e+ent is unable, from within the finitude of hisFher local perspecti+e, to predict the indefinitelylarge number of ways in which a particular truth can and will be inscribed into unforeseeableorders of knowledges"yet"to"come%A =+en within a present epistemological regime, sub5ectsare at pains to measure accurately the full consequences that flow from the forcing of a truth

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into the +ast, comple! representational matrices surrounding these same sub5ectsC)the setof actors of a generic procedure, of a truth procedure, are clearly ignorant, unknowing, of what it is%*A1 The re+erberations of the +arious registers of knowledge in response to a truth,the resonations ringing out from an act of forcing, are too numerous and multi"faceted to be

assessed accurately by a single ear alone% &n short, the number of +eridical ramifications of a truth is )infinite* /qua non"finiteFinnumerable2 insofar as the +ery essence of a specific truthis partially dependent upon the open"ended structure of the future anterior, namely, upon therichness of a truths actual as well as potential +eridicalities%

&n the course of pro+iding what at first sounds like a straightforward e!egetical accountof (adious system and its terminology, iek ad+ances what can now be recogni ed as aloaded definition of (adiouian truth% He argues that, )the infinite Truth is 4eternal andeta$with regard to the temporal process of (eingE it is a flash of another dimension transcendingthe positi+ity of (eing%*A3 0ince iek, in the opening phases of his reading of (adiou, positsthat vrit is a meta"le+el feature of )another dimension* occasionally glimpsed withine!periential reality, the charge of 8antian idealism articulated at the end of the same chapter of ,he ,i'klish :u&-e't /)The olitics of Truth, or, 'lain (adiou as a eader of 0aint aul*2comes as no surprise% This talk of separate dimensions already ser+es to color (adiou in aslightly 8antian hue% The problem with ieks interpretation is that, in somewhat decepti+elycontrasting the dimensions of fleeting, ephemeral truth with fluctuating, tangible being, heignores the multiple dimensions internal to the (adiouian conception of vrit itself% Truth"as"place is the eternally unsuturable +oid subsisting, as an inherent structural feature,between the uncountable infinitude of being and the finitude of knowledge /the latter relyingupon the )finiti ation* of infinite being effectuated through counting"for"one2, with knowledgebeing immanent to the single plane of being itself% &n other words, for (adiou, there is nosecond ontological dimension such as a noumenal (eyondC) nous pouvons d-( dire. nous.ha&itants du s-our infini de la ,erre. que tout est i'i. tou-ours i'i8 I'i est le lieu du devenir des vrits0 I'i nous so es infinis %*A6 #or this +ery reason, (adiou +ehemently denies thathe indulges in any sort of idealismC)To be an idealist you ha+e to distinguish betweenthought and matter, transcendence and immanence, the high and the low, pure thought andempirical thought% -one of these distinctions function in the system & propose%*A7 Truth"as"place is the timeless catalyst for the temporal unfolding of epistemological orders% (ut, bycontrast, truths"as"+eridicalities"to"comeCthe forcing of specific truths by faithful sub5ects of e+ents transforms todays gi+en truths into the new knowledge of tomorrows +eridicalitiesCare holes in +arious symbolic orders that ha+e a chance to be filled if and when these ordersundergo alteration /thus gi+ing the lie to the allegations of a co+ert reliance upon a 8antianconstituti+e"+ersus"regulati+e opposition2% 's (adiou protests, )& concei+e of a truth not as apregi+en transcendent norm, in the name of which we are supposed to act, but as a

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critique of knowledge as the mere result of a construction, as 4added in order to bee+entually subtracted%B6

=+idently, (adiou, as also charged by iek, uncritically assumes the pre"e!istence of

epistemological frameworks, remaining silent regarding how andFor why knowledgeemerges from being in the first place% During an inter+iew with Hallward in AA necessitates siding with theantitheses of 8ants first two antinomies of pure reason% This leads automatically to thesecond assertion: =ach and e+ery ontological in+estigation is entirely local, in other words,limited to engaging with particular, determinate beings instead of a grand wholeBA /in theabsence of any cosmic ontological .ne"'ll L %n$,out M, being is always presentationallylocali ed B 2% &n the third step here, (adiou adds some specificity to the preceding secondclaim in stating that all being, as pure multiplicity, is necessarily a )being"there* /tre$l(2C) ,out tre est tre$l(= voil( lessen'e de lappara

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largest encompassing set of all possible relations between beings"as"appearances/consequently, human reason is haunted by a )transcendental illusion* of unified wholenessdespite the e+ident absence of any such unity2% #or (adiou, one of the most importantresults of this e!ercise is that logic and its categories, insofar as logical structures are

defined as relations obtaining between appearances, arent to be +iewed from a 8antianperspecti+e as part of a sub5ect"centered order somehow mysteriously )preceding* /in anapriori mode2 the immediate manifestation of appearances themsel+es%9 (adiou is carefulto note that his crucial ontological principle /i%e%, the .ne does not e!ist2, as the first premisein this argumentati+e sequence, is an internally generated product of formali edmathematical reason itself%< That is to say, it has nothing to do either with the in+ocation of an inaccessible, otherworldly domain or with arbitrary assertions about presumed limits tothe powers of rationality%> ?ommenting on this same chapter of Court trait dontolo#ie

transitoire, iek aptly obser+es that the standard philosophical fla+or of the distinctionbetween being and appearance is decisi+ely altered by (adiou% Typically, being is portrayedas concrete, tangible, and substantial, as opposed to the fleeting and ephemeral character of /sometimes illusory2 appearances /for 8ant too, ob5ects"as"appearances lack the sameontological heft supposedly possessed by things"in"themsel+es2% &n the (adiouian uni+erse,by contrast, being qua being is a weightless abstraction best captured by the pure formalityof mathematics, whereas appearances within specific situations are left to carry thequotidian weight of e!perienced e!istence%A

'ssuming that knowledge is constructed on the basis of appearances and theconceptual relations immanent to them, (adiou could perhaps go so far as to assert thathes able to deduce the e!istence of knowledge from the internal dynamics of his ontologyas delineated pre+iously in Ltre et lvne ent % oreo+er, this deduction, as (adiouhimself underscores, requires no idealist"style recourse to the constituting acti+ities of atranscendental sub5ect inter+ening within the order of beingC)Il ne dpend dau'un su-et quon prsupposerait dans sa 'onstitution0 Ltant$ ultiple napparat de lessen'e de ltant dappara

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reading of $acan, anfred #rank argues that any and e+ery genetic theory of the sub5ect, of sub5ecti+ity as a becoming, is doomed to failure by +irtue of an una+oidable, +iciouscircularity% #rom #ranks perspecti+e, these sorts of /what he designates as2 #rench)neostructuralist* approaches are dri+en to conceal this failure +ia a specious sleight"of"hand

in which, so to speak, the rabbit they seemingly pull out of the hate" nihilo is the one theyco+ertly put there beforehand11 /see also section one, chapter one2% How does this critiquework, and what rele+ance does it ha+e with respect to (adiou in particular@ (adiou positsthat a sub5ect proper only arises when an e+ent calls forth a form of sub5ecti+ity specific tothat e+ents truthC)& call 4sub5ect the bearer Lle support M of a fidelity, the one who bears aprocess of truth% The sub5ect, therefore, in no way pre"e!ists the process% He is absolutelynone!istent in the situation 4before the e+ent% Ge might say that the process of truthindu'es a sub5ect%*13 #rank argues, in opposition to what he takes to be the position of

thinkers such as 'lthusser and $acan, that phenomena like recognition and interpellationoccur e!clusi+ely on condition that a kind of sub5ecti+ity always"already e!ists as that whichperforms the gesture of recogni ing itself or of taking the stance of respondent to theinterpellating call of the .ther /iek points out that (adious manner of linking sub5ect ande+ent is uncannily close to 'lthussers theory of ideological interpellation16 2% #or #rank,without assuming the effecti+e e!istence of sentient, self"reflecti+e sub5ecti+ity as an un"deri+ed, primordial gi+en /and not as a genetic result or by"product2, one is powerless toe!plain e!actly who or what performs the creati+e act supposedly generating sub5ecti+ity%

'lmost certainly, he would raise this same ob5ection against (adiou: ' truth"e+ent cannot, inreality, found sub5ecti+ity, since there must first be a sub5ect who discerns the truth"e+entand makes a decision to submit to its in5unction through faithful practices offor5a#e% &f,following (adiou, one refuses to label the indi+idual prior to interpellation by a truth"e+ent asub5ect proper, then what ought one to designate a human being as potentially"but"not"yet"actually caught up in e+ental /vne entiel 2 processes@

.n se+eral occasions, (adiou contrasts animality and human sub5ecti+ity, with thee+ent ser+ing to establish the boundary between these two%17 's ?ritchley notes, )#or (adiou, we are simply the sort of animals who are claimed by circumstances to &e'o e asub5ect%*19 (adiou e!plains himself thus:

$et us say that a su&-e't , which goes beyond the animal /although the animal remainsits sole foundation Lsupport M2 needs something to ha+e happened, something thatcannot be reduced to its ordinary inscription in 4what there is% $et us call thissupple ent an event , and let us distinguish multiple"being, where it is not a matter of truth /but only of opinions2, from the e+ent, which compels us to decide anew way of being%1<

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Gho or what is this )us* that can )decide a new way of being@* Ghat is it in human beingsthat animals lack@ .r, as $acanian psychoanalysis would ha+e it, what is it that humanbeings lack that other animals possess@ &n other words, what resides within the nature or constitution of humanity that allows for recepti+ity to the happening of e+ents@ 'nimals

arent the only creatures mired in the brute immediacy of )what there is*Chuman beings too,when simply operating within the confines of a particular state of the situation, are less thanfull sub5ects /perhaps one would do well here to retrie+e an 'ristotelian notion of )rationalanimality* as the missing third term to be placed between (adious two poles of animalityand sub5ecti+ity2%

's early as se+eral select lectures from the late A

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N$acan insists on the primacy of the /negati+e2 a't o+er the /positi+e2 establishmentof a 4new harmony +ia the inter+ention of some new aster"0ignifierN This differencebetween (adiou and $acan concerns precisely the status of the sub5ect: (adiousmain point is to a+oid identifying the sub5ect with the constituti+e oid of the structureCsuch an identification already 4ontologi es the sub5ect, albeit in a purely negati+ewayCthat is, it turns the sub5ect into an entity consubstantial with the structure, anentity that belongs to the order of what is necessary and a priori /4no structure withouta sub5ect2% To this $acanian ontologi ation of the sub5ect, (adiou opposes its 4rarity,the local"contingent"fragile"passing emergence of sub5ecti+ityN #or (adiouN thesub5ect is consubstantial with a contingent act of DecisionE while $acan introduces thedistinction between the sub5ect and the gesture of sub5ecti+i ation: what (adiou and$aclau describe is the process of sub5ecti+i ationCthe emphatic engagement, theassumption of fidelity to the =+entN while the sub5ect is the negati+e gesture of breaking out of the constraints of (eing that opens up the space of possiblesub5ecti+i ation%6

(adiou and $acan are perfect in+ersions of each other regarding how they each cast thedistinction between the terms )sub5ect* and )sub5ectification%* (adiou treats sub5ectificationas the founding negati+ity of a not"quite"yet"sub5ect /i%e%, an e!cessi+e inconsistency in agi+en situation2 that comes to produce a sub5ect, with this thus"produced sub5ect defined asa positi+e set of fidelity procedures in relation to the content of a particular truth"e+ent%?on+ersely, $acan, according to iek, treats the sub5ect as the +oid of an irreduciblenegati+ity in response to which all forms of sub5ectification /qua determinate incarnations (la )suturings* to specific e+ents and their truths2 are partially failed attempts at

domestication% ?onsequently, as can be seen abo+e, iek accuses (adiou of confusing adescription of the process of sub5ectification with an analysis of the sub5ect itself%

ieks critique of (adiou as a 8antian falls flat in part due to the distinction betweentypes of vrit discernable in the (adiouian system% Howe+er, this other layer of iekscritical engagement with (adiou currently under discussion calls for de+eloping a distinction,absent in (adious te!ts, between separate senses of the term )+oid%* &ncarnate +oids withinhuman nature /for e!ample, +oids as internal to the libidinal economy2 should bedistinguished from an inhuman, structural +oid as a uni+ersal feature of ontology%61 iek

could be construed as pleading for the preser+ation of a difference between +oid"as"sub5ectCwhile addressing (adious work, iek insists upon the equi+alence between sub5ecti+ityand the death dri+e /,odestrie&2Cand +oid"as"place /i%e%, the irreducible gap between beingand knowledge pre+iously labeled )Truth"as"place*2% The $acanian +oid"as"sub5ect /V2functions, in this argument, not only as the possibility condition for the human indi+idualbeing recepti+e to the disruption of the reigning order by the ad+ent of a truth"e+ent /i%e%, asthe power of the (adiouian )no* of sub5ectification that clears the ground for something other than e!tant knowledges2, but also as the reason why, against (adiou, one cannot fully

collapse the sub5ect back into the series of innerworldly procedures and practices of concrete fidelity% The negati+ity of this )barred 0* is, at one and the same time, both a

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condition of possibility as well as a condition of impossibility for the sub5ects positi+eidentification with the cause of a truth"e+ent:

Nit is $acans contention that, in this negati+e gesture of 4wiping the slate clean,something /a +oid2 is confronted which is already 4sutured with the arri+al of a newTruth"=+ent% #or $acan, negati+ity, a negati+e gesture of withdrawal, precedes anypositi+e gesture of enthusiastic identification with a ?ause: negati+ity functions as thecondition of /im2possibility of the enthusiastic identificationCthat is to say, it lays theground, opens up the space for it, but is simultaneously obfuscated by it andundermines it%63

The irony of iek accusing (adiou of 8antianism presently reaches its peak: The +ision of the sub5ect shared by 8ant and his ;erman idealist successors, clothed in $acanian

terminology, is mobili ed against (adiou% 'lthough iek thinks anfred #rank clumsilymisreads $acan 66 /see section one, chapter one2, there is nonetheless common groundbetween iek and #rank in that neither belie+es that one simply can con5ure the sub5ectcompletelye" nihilo out of, for instance, an e+ent aloneC)strictly speaking, indi+iduals donot 4become sub5ects, they 4always"alreadyare sub5ects%*67 'nd, both of them refer to latemodern ;erman philosophies of sub5ecti+ity when raising this ob5ection /iek e!plicitly usesHegels )night of the world* phrase in this critical reading of (adiou2% 0omething other than amere impasse in knowledge or the symbolic order, this impasse being really 5ust as

structural and inhumanly anonymous as the ontological +oid with which (adiou refuses toidentify the sub5ect, must be posited as a prior element conditioning the sort of sub5ecti+itydelineated by (adiou%

iek proceeds to assert that the death dri+e is, at least from a $acanian point of +iew,the sub5ect itself as the power of negati+ity% He claims that this is the hidden, disa+owedlynchpin of (adious foundational distinction between being and e+entC)The $acaniandeath dri+e /a category (adiou adamantly opposes2 isN a kind of 4+anishing mediatorbetween (eing and =+ent: there is a 4negati+e gesture constituti+e of the sub5ect which is

then obfuscated in 4(eing /the established ontological order2 and in fidelity to the =+ent%*69(adiou allegedly e!cludes this negati+e mediator from his systemC)there is simply no placefor the #reudian death dri+e in (adious pair of (eing and =+ent%*6< Ghat accounts for thise!clusion@ #urthermore, when (adiou, in ,horie du su-et , designates the sub5ect"effect asthe parado!ical unity"in"contradiction of sub5ectification /i%e%, the negati+e gesture of withdrawal2 and the sub5ecti+e process /i%e%, the positi+e procedure of forcing2,6> isnt thisanother way of articulating the $acanian notion of sub5ecti+ity mobili ed by iek in hiscritique@ Does (adiou change his mind on this point after,horie du su-et , subsequently

e!cluding /in later te!ts such as Ltre et lvne ent 2 negati+ity from this account@0imilarly, what about those moments when $acan speaks of the sub5ect as tied to a dynamic

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of )temporal pulsation@*6A ;i+en this, would he really ob5ect to (adious assertionsregarding the )rarity* of sub5ecti+ityqua occurrence@

&n response to ieks assertions, (adiou would likely ha+e strong reser+ations aboutintroducing the psychoanalytic concept of,rie& into his theoretical apparatus% To begin with,the omnipresence of libidinal causality in the analytic depiction of the psyche threatens toforeclose the possibility of the e+ent as a radical rupture or discontinuity in the fabric of history% Doesnt #reuds infamous psychical determinism portray each and e+ery stage of ontogenetic /and e+en phylogenetic2 de+elopment as shaped by forces ine+itablyestablishing an unbroken thread of continuity between past and present@ Onder the sway of the dri+es relentless demands for repetition as well as the perpetual returns of therepressed, how can the e+ent, as the unpredictable irruption of the -ew that entirely breakswith its prior temporal background and historical coordinates, e+en be thought at all@sychoanalysis, in its more deterministic modesCthis determinism is always, ultimately,grounded on the theory of the dri+es as the rudiments of the libidinal economyCoperates asa genealogy of the singular sub5ect, an archaeology unearthing the strata connecting themultiple tiers of the mind /(runo (osteels, a (adiouian theorist attacked by iek in the1BB1 foreword to the second edition ofFor they know not what they do, claims that (adious,horie du su-et , with its dialectical materialist emphasis on the sub5ects refle!i+e)topological contortions* in relation to a malleable eal, seeks to a+oid the deterministicclosure of models based on )structural causality,* such as those ostensibly espoused by#reudian"$acanian psychoanalytic metapsychology7B2% (adiou insists that philosophy, inorder to re+itali e itself, must break with the +arious forms of genealogical historicismholding sway since Hegel and -iet sche 7 C) e propose darra'her la philosophie ( 'et i pratif #nalo#ique %*71 The )genealogical imperati+e* of #reudian analysis wouldlikewise be a danger to a+oid from this perspecti+e%

' second (adiouian ob5ection to embracing the death dri+e in particular would be thatthis concept is too closely allied to the philosophical thematic of finitude, too pro!imate to,

among other notions, Heideggerian (eing"towards"death% &n characteri ing the sub5ect of the truth"e+ent as a finite moment of an infinite process, (adiou is stringently opposed topost"8antian philosophys dogmatic insistence that sub5ecti+ity is wholly and completelyreducible to an essentially limited, mortal status%73 The (adiouian sub5ect carries within itself /whether it knows it or not2 the infinities of truths, rather than being e!pelled from thesespaces of vrit by +irtue of condemnation to the prison"house of epistemological finitude%76

'nd, on se+eral occasions, (adiou remarks that death, usually taken to be the ultimateemblem of humanitys finitude, is simply a feature of animality, instead of being a mark of

sub5ecti+ity proper%77

#reuds depictions of the ,odestrie& seemingly wed it, in a manner consistent with

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(adious likely suspicions, to the fact of finitude% #reud treats it as the most profoundsymptom of the human indi+iduals embodied /hence mortal2 condition, going so far as todiscern its machinations across the broad spectrum of li+ing beings /in fact, #reud draws adegree of inspiration for this idea from studies of single"celled organisms2% Onder the

influence of a somatically dictated program, the dri+es stri+e toward an inorganic state%79

How could one not interpret this as a psychoanalytic endorsement of philosophies of sub5ecti+e finitude@ iek accomplishes a complete re+ersal of this standard reading of thedeath dri+e% The blind insistence of,rie& that #reud attributes to the ,odestrie& isnt,according to iek, a manifestation of mortal finitude% .n the contrary, this compulsi+erepetiti+eness is best compared to an undead, immortal re+enant that permanently hauntsthe psyche%7< Dri+es, epitomi ed through the e+ocati+e figure of the,odestrie&, 7> pay noheed whatsoe+er to the passage of time% They endlessly reiterate their demands for the

pure repetition of contingent past contents fro en into thereafter necessary forms:

This notion of a spectral undead e!istence also allows us to account for thefundamental parado! of the #reudianF$acanian death dri+e: like the 8ierkegaardiansickness unto death, the death dri+e is not the mark of human finitude, but its +eryopposite, the name for 4eternal /spectral2 life, the inde! of a dimension in humane!istence that persists for e+er, beyond our physical death, and of which we can ne+er rid oursel+es% Nfor $acan, the death dri+e is precisely the ultimate #reudian name for the dimension traditional metaphysics designated as that of i ortality Cfor a dri+e, a4thrust, which persists beyond the /biological2 cycle of generation and corruption,

beyond the 4way of all flesh%7A

The instincts of animals generally tend to obey the natural rhythms of biologicalorganisms automatically attuned to the en+ironment% Dri+es, by contrast, are compulsi+eforces entirely di+orced from these sorts of organically regulated periods and phases, blindlyinsisting upon an indefinite sequence of reiterations of a gi+en state of affairs% Otterlyneglecting the condition of their )mortal coils,* a neglect licensed by an unconsciousignorance of mortality,9B dri+es make no e!ceptions for the )weakness of the flesh*Cthe

indi+iduals finitude is of no concern whatsoe+er%9 ,rie& is a ra+enous, insatiable parasite% 'lthough deri+ing its li+ing force from the body, it nonetheless pushes this same bodytoward death in its uncompromising, unconditional pursuit of -ouissan'e %91 0o, rather thanser+ing as yet another indication of the human beings finite animal condition /to becontrasted with (adiouian sub5ecti+itysrapport with the infinite2, the iekian,odestrie& isan incarnate manifestation of an )immortality* that breaks with natures material cycles of generation and corruptionC)as #reud emphasi es repeatedly, there is no notion or representation of death in the un'ons'ious : the #reudian ,odestrie& has absolutely nothing

to do with the Heideggerian:ein$/u $,ode % Dri+e is immortal, eternal, 4undead%*93

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&n his chapter on (adiou in,he ,i'klish :u&-e't , iek indulges in a somewhat strangeequi+ocation between the sub5ect and the death dri+e /see also section three, chapter thirteen2% Ghether or not $acan himself actually endorses such an equi+alenceFidentitybetween these two terms is open to question% Howe+er, elsewhere, iek makes the more

intuiti+e obser+ation that,rie& is a transitional, borderline function halfway between rawanimality and full"fledged sub5ecti+ityC)The mysterious intermediate status of dri+e residesin the fact that, while we are -.T J=T dealing with the sub5ectN we are also -. $.-;=dealing with the immediate self"enclosure of a biological organism%*96 This formulation isespecially effecti+e in showing why $acans +ersion of the #reudian concept of,rie& wouldbe e!tremely useful for (adiou% #irst of all, gi+en #reuds stipulation that dri+es, unlikeinstincts, are )ob5ectless*Cdri+es do not come pre"wired in terms of some naturally ordainedorientation toward specific sorts of entities and beha+iors97 Cthis e!plains why human

beings arent totally soldered in place to e!tant situations and states of situations /ane!planation crucial for (adious system2% The inborn negati+ity of dri+es, the fact that)human nature* is always"already out"of"5oint with the brute gi+en"ness of )what there is,* isa +ital precondition clearing the ground for engagements with e+ents% 0econdly, the ability of dri+es to operate )beyond the pleasure principle* /this being #reuds point about the,odestrie&2 do+etails perfectly with a central cluster of notions in (adious corpus% Onlike theutilitarian cost"benefit calculations at work in the negotiated e!changes between thepleasure principle and the reality principle, dri+es in and of themsel+es, decoupled from this

mediating dynamic between principles, are not sub5ect to blackmail by the empiricalcircumstances of the status quo%

Gith great rhetorical energy, (adiou frequently highlights a passion intimately in+ol+edin the labor offor5a#eC)The sub5ecti+e process of a truth is one and the same thing as thelo+e of that truth%*99 He emphasi es that the forcing effectuated by the sub5ect of the truth"e+ent is dri+en by )fidelity,* )faithfulness,* )militancy,* and )lo+e%*9< Ghat are these terms if not so many different names for that dimension of the human transcending, in its unnaturale!cessi+eness, the ordered run of things /i%e%, (adious )ser+ice of goods* Lservi'e des&iensM9> 2@ Ghat, within the core of humanitys +ery being, agitates and pro+okes adissatisfaction with reigning states of affairs, with the stabili ing, soporific equilibriumbetween being and knowledge@ Ghat empowers and compels indi+iduals to sacrifice their delicate well"being for the sake of amorous, political, scientific, or artistic causes@ iekmakes a con+incing case for the /re2introduction of a psychoanalytic conception of thematerial nature of the eal /as epitomi ed by dri+e theory2 within (adious system on thebasis of these queriesC)how does the gap open up within the absolute closure of the eal,within which elements of the eal can appear@ Ghy the need for the pure multitude to bere"presented in a 0tate@N &s it not that there already has to be some tensionFantagonism

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that is operati+e within the pure multitude of (eing itself@*9A (adiou ought to be confrontedwhen he says, )?onsidered in terms of its mere nature alone, the human animal must belumped in the same category as its biological companions%*

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/savoir 2% 0imilarly, it would be interesting and worthwhile, in e+aluating Hallwards criticismshere, to go back and e!amine the relationship between (adious A>1 ,horie du su-et /inwhich (adiou deploys a series of dialectical dynamics2 and his A>> Ltre et lvne ent /inwhich non"relational, anti"dialectical models predominate2% How much from,horie du su-et

is really renounced in the subsequent system@

&n the course of his critical assessment, Hallward offers a way out of this danger of adhering to a too subtracti+ely purified ideal of truth: differentiating between the )specified*/as whate+er is determined by its situational milieu2 and the )specific* /as somethingparticular to a gi+en situational milieu, but, nonetheless, not wholly determined by it2%Hallward contends that )(adious system* is go+erned by a strict dichotomy between )state"dri+en operations of inclusion or classification, and truth"dri+en operations of separation or subtraction%*B and that thee+ental site, linked to the +oid of being subsisting within each and e+ery situation, alwayshas an )edge* as a region of contact with its specific situation /hence (adious insistencethat truths are immanent to situations, > that they are )anonymous and unnameable localbeings*>1 2% erhaps Hallward can be construed as saying that (adious anti"relational,subtracti+e thought both e!plicitly re5ects and, all the while, implicitly presupposes somethingalong the lines of the distinction between the specific and the specified%

The bulk of Hallwards criticisms deal with the post"e+ental dimension of the problemswith (adious de+aluation of relationality /i%e%, queries concerning how the disrupti+econsequences of the truth"e+ent are brought back into producti+e connections withsituations and their states2% Howe+er, (adiou is plagued by difficulties at the pre"e+entalle+el too% &n fact, these difficulties might well be the most serious shortcomings of his

philosophy% Hallward again reminds readers that, for (adiou, )Truth subtracts itself from thecircumstances in which it is produced, be they social, psychological, or cogniti+e%*>3 0implyput, if something is uni+ersally and truly true, then it cannot be reduced to the merebackground against which it surfaces /this being why, for instance, all the myriad +arieties of ad ho ine arguments, seeking to de"legitimi e a truth by pointing to its positional locus of articulationFproduction, are fallacious2% Ghats more, according to (adiou, the empiricallydelineable features of human beings are incidental with regard to their potential status assub5ects faithful to truths% This blanket dismissal of the rele+ance of )human nature* in a

theory of sub5ecti+ity is quite unsatisfactory:

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N(adious firm dissociation of the process of sub5ecti+ation from its enabling 4naturalor 4psychological conditions may do more to simplify our understanding of thatprocess than e!plain it% He defines the human in terms of our e!ceptional 4capacity for thought, but shows little interest in the origin and nature of that capacityN -o amountof insistence upon the e!ceptional or nonnatural status of the sub5ect, howe+er,accounts for or 5ustifies dismissal of the nature of that being which is uniquely able to&e'o e e!ceptional, any more than it helps us understand how and why certainindi+iduals actually become sub5ects%>6

?orrelati+e to the dichotomy between inclusion and subtraction, (adiou posits a sharpbinary di+ision between, on the one hand, the indi+idual /i%e%, the human animal, a creatureshaped and specified by +arious situational elements2, and, on the other hand, the sub5ect/i%e%, an agency e!ceeding the mere indi+idual, transcending the empirical features of thehuman animal2% The indi+idual is included in a situation, whereas the sub5ect subtracts itself

from its situation% The indi+idual isnt always"already a sub5ectE sub5ecti+ity is con5ured intoeffecti+e e!istence through the indi+idual being, as it were, interpellated by an e+ent and itstruth% #or (adiou, indi+iduals become sub5ects, and, as he describes it, sub5ecti+ity issomething occasional and momentaryCin short, the sub5ect is )rare,* something literallye!tra"ordinary% 'nd yet, (adious philosophy fails to furnish any account whatsoe+er of human nature, a nature that (adiou dismisses as irrele+ant to e+ental sub5ecti+ity quasubtracted from situated innerworldly indi+iduality% Thus, a ma5or question, one thatinsistently demands a response, is left unanswered: Ghat is it about human nature that

makes indi+iduals intrinsically capable of /at least potentially2 becoming sub5ects@ any,including iek, Hallward, 0imon ?ritchley, and Daniel (ensaWd, ha+e forcefully posed thisperturbing problem%>7 There has to be something in the constitution of indi+iduals thatsustains the possibility of heeding the summons of truth"e+ents% &f, in terms of other aspectsof his system, (adiou allows for, broadly speaking, the immanent genesis of thetranscendent /i%e%, the e+ent arises out of an e+ental site, trans"historical truth arises out of the defiles of history, etc%2, then why not similarly de+elop an account of human nature thate!plains how it is that this nature contains within itself the potentiality to transcend itself@

Ghat is it within the indi+idual that enables this indi+idual to step outside of himFher"self inresponding to an e+ent@ Hallward remarks that (adious )philosophy effecti+ely proscribesthought from considering the produ'tion of an e+ent%*>9 (adiou pronounces a prohibitionagainst all attempts at e!plaining the preconditions and enabling circumstances precipitatinge+ents% ?onsequently, in refusing to spell out the particular features of human naturemaking possible the production of sub5ectification"effects, (adiou is at least beingconsistent% Howe+er, the prescripti+e in5unction of subtraction /subtract the e+ent fromsituations, subtract the truth from knowledges, subtract the sub5ect from ob5ects2 both

hobbles and eclipses the necessary"yet"neglected task of, at a minimum, e!plaining howand why humanity is able, from time to time, to inhabit those infinite planes opened up by

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e+ents% Ghat mediates between the e+ental site and the e+ent@ Ghat mediates between theindi+idual and the sub5ect@ (adiou remains silent%

on*lusion

&n forging a theory of the e+ent, (adiou attempts to assign specific socio"historicalconte!ts their appropriate place without, in the process, falling back into historicismsconte!tual determinism%>< (adiou is clear: 'lthough e+ents open the infinite +istas of truths,they dont descend upon mundane reality from some other, hea+enly realm% =+ery e+ent hasa specific )site%* That is to say, e+ery e+ent arises within particular, innerworldlyconfigurations% -onetheless, although the e!istence of a gi+en site is a condition for thehappening of an e+ent, its occurrence cannot be reduced to a mere e!tension of trends

stemming from the situated site itself >> /otherwise, it wouldnt qualify as an e+entqua e+ent,as a true break2C)The e+ent is both situated Cit is the e+ent of this or that situationCandsupple entary E thus absolutely detached from, or unrelated to, all the rules of thesituation%*>A Thus, (adiou re5ects any kind of determinism that would threaten to reduce allpossible occurrences to permutations of an ultimately consistent historical continuum/psychoanalytic employments of the notion of the libidinal economy sometimes might seemto flirt with precisely this sort of reduction2%AB &nLtre et lvne ent , he isolates the e+entssite as the finite point of genesis for an infinite processC)lontolo#ie ense &liste affir e

que. si &ien entendu la prsentation peut tre infinie8 elle est 'ependent tou-ours arquede finitudequant Q son origine0 Cest 'ette finitude qui est i'i e"isten'e dun site. au &ord duvide. histori'it%*A =lsewhere, in :aint Paul , he remarks, )although the e+ent depends on itssite in its &ein# , it must be independent of it in its truth effe'ts%*A1 The e+ent is a )purebeginning*A3 that arises within the defiles of, so to speak, impure continuance%

't this 5uncture, two tra5ectories running back"and"forth between the finite and theinfinite become +isible% .n the one hand, (adiou endea+ors to describe how the always"gi+en infinity of being distills itself into the finitude of limited constellations of knowledge,with truths ser+ing as reminders of the ne+er"se+ered links to this ontological plane% .n theother hand, in tying e+ents to the immanence of a circumscribed, locali ed site, (adioutraces the emergence of the infinite back to a finite originary locus% Thus, knowledge is thebecoming finite of infinite being, whereas, in an in+erse fashion, the truths of e+ents aree!cluded elements embedded within finite sites /themsel+es determined by states of situations2 becoming infinite% 'lthough ieks way of labeling (adiou as a 8antian idealistmisinterprets the first dynamic /i%e%, the becoming finite of the infinite2, his in+ocation of the#reudian"$acanian ,odestrie& 5ustifiably demonstrates the need for a supplementary,mediating third factor, situated between the poles of the (adiouian dualism between

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animality and sub5ecti+ity, in order e+en for there to be the +ery occurrence of the seconddynamic /i%e%, the becoming infinite of the finite2% &n (adious terminology, one could say thatiek introduces dri+es as elements of a finite site that, by +irtue of their internal negati+ity,make possible a militant forcing that transcends the parameters of this same site itself%

;i+en its role in the preceding discussions, it merits asking e!actly what is entailed by8ants transcendental idealism% Taken in its most traditional and restricti+e sense, it in+ol+espositing that the synthesi ing acti+ities of the thinking sub5ect are constituti+e for e!perientialreality and its correspondingly possible forms of knowledge /(adiou construes 8antstranscendentalism in this narrow fashionA62% 0tressing 8ants idealism amounts tounderscoring the part that the mind plays in generating an epistemologically accessibleworld% Howe+er, a broader interpretation of the 8antian position is licensed by an emphasison his transcendentalism /rather than on his idealism2: Transcendental idealism is interestedin in+estigating those features of sub5ecti+e constitution, intellectual or otherwise /one mightargue that psychoanalytic metapsychology, including dri+e theory, fits into this kind of transcendental pro5ect2, that make possible /human2 reality itself, that ser+e as necessarypreconditions for things taking shape as they do% &n this light, perhaps ieks criticism of (adiou should be re+ersed: (adiou is not enough of a transcendentalist% He neglects tostipulate why the finite folds of being that human beings are dont remain idioticallyimmersed in )what there is%* He doesnt say, in any e+ident or straightforward way, howsub5ectification in response to the interpellation of a truth"e+ent is possible in the first place%&f (adiou does indeed, as iek maintains, ha+e )8ant trouble,* it isnt too muchtranscendental philosophy, but, quite possibly, too little% Howe+er, pursuing the routeopening up here through the interaction between (adiou and iek entails embarking uponan e!tremely ambitious philosophical program: the de+elopment of a transcendentalmaterialism /i%e%, an account of what, within the material ground of human being, makespossible the sub5ect qua rupture with this same ground2 forged through an alliance betweenphilosophy and psychoanalysis%

Addendum

&n a recently published essay /)Linvesti#ation trans'endentale *2, (adiou foreshadowssome of the theses to be deployed in his upcoming sequel to Ltre et lvne ent /thesequel being entitled Lo#iques des ondes 2% &n this short pre+iew, (adiou argues in fa+or of a notion of the transcendental in which its status is decoupled from its pre+ious dependenceupon /idealist2 sub5ecti+ity% He contends that the transcendental consists of a locali ed set of possibility conditions /perhaps appealing here to something like a non"uni+ersal notion of the apriori 2 for appearances and their logical relations inherently internal to specific

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after"the"fact of their unforeseeable, ine!plicable, and miraculous occurrence% erhaps allone can do is thank ;od for being deli+ered from the burden of the 8antian curse%

ndnotes

i% The paper was first published in@ReA$turn= ! ournal of La'anian :tudies, +ol% 1, 0pring1BB7, pp% >7" 6

% iek AA3: 6E (adiou AA1: 9B%

1% $acan A9" 1A%

6% iek 1BB a: % iek 1BB b: >: 63B"63 , 69A"6: 79"7% iek 1BB1b: l!!!i+%

A% iek 1BB1b: l!!!+%

1B% $acan A9AE iek AA9: 3>: 166E $acan AA3: 3

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13% $acan AAB: 3%

16% (adiou 1BB6: %

17% (adiou A>1: 131"133E (adiou A>>: 37"39, 79E (adiou AA>: 1>"3B%

19% (adiou A>>: 3 "31%

1% 'lain (adiou, ) Philosophie et ath atique ,* Conditions, pg% E(adiou AA6: >9E Hallward 1BBB: 1, 79" 7% (adiou AA6: >b: 16%

6B% (adiou A>>: , 7>%

6 % $acan A99: >9>E $acan AA : 7: 63>"63A, 79 %

6>% (adiou A>7b: 13E (adiou 1BB :

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7 % iek AAAa: A"AB%

93% (adiou AA b: 17%

96% (adiou A>>: 66 %

97% 'lain (adiou, ) Confren'e sur la soustra'tion ,*Conditions, pg% >>E#ink AA9: %

99% (adiou AA1: 99%

9% (adiou A>7a: 61%

9A% (adiou A>1: 1

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B>% (adiou AA>b: 1a: A1%

9% (adiou AA>aE A1" A3%

a: A6%>% Kohnston 1BB1

A% iek 1BBB: > %

1B% (adiou AA>a: A1%

1 % Hallward AA>: >E ?ritchley 1BBB: 1 "11%

11% #rank A>A: 3 3"3 6%

13% (adiou 1BB : 63%16% iek AAAa: 67%

17% (adiou AA>b: 1>" 1A%

19% ?ritchley 1BBB: 1 %

1% (adiou A>1: 1>B, 1A3%

1A% (adiou A>>: 69A%3B% (adiou 1BB3: 93"96%

3 % (adiou A>1: 1>A%

31% (adiou 1BB3: 93"96%

33% (adiou AA b: 1>E iek AA>: 69A%

37% 'lain (adiou, ) hilosophy and Truth,* Infinite ,hou#ht , pg% 91

39% (adiou A>>: 119, 11

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31" >3

77% iek 1BB a: : 39, 3>"3AE:7 A: 6B"6 %

7A: 6"7E iek AAAb: 1 %

93% iek AAA%

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96% iek 1BB d: A9%

97%:7 ">A%

9>% (adiou A>1: 317%

>7% Hallward 1BB3: 6 E ?ritchley 1BB7: 3BBE (ensaWd 1BB6: A>%>9% Hallward 1BB3: 3< %

>>%

>>% (adiou A>7a: 67%

>A% (adiou 1BB : 9>%

AB% (adiou A>>: 1BB%

A % (adiou A>>: 1B>%

A1% (adiou 1BB3: 13%

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(adiou, '% / AA>d2 !&r# de tapolitique , aris: Sditions du 0euil%

(adiou, '% / AAA2Hanifesto for Philosophy 'lbany: 0tate Oni+ersity of -ew Jork ress%

(adiou, '% /1BBBa2)eleu/e= ,he Cla or of Dein# inneapolis: Oni+ersity of innesotaress%

(adiou, '% /1BBBb2 43uit th2ses sur luniversel ,%niversel. sin#ulier. su-et , aris: 8imI%

(adiou, '% /1BBBc2 4Le"isten'e et la ort , Philosopher ,E= Les Interro#ations'onte poraines. atriau" pour un ensei#ne ent aris: #ayard%

(adiou, '% /1BB 27thi's= !n 7ssay on the %nderstandin# of 7vil $ondon: erso%

(adiou, ' 0/1BB F1BB12 1n 7vil= !n Interview with !lain Dadiou @with Christoph Co" and Holly WhalenA. Ca&inet. no0 J.www0'a&inet a#a/ine0or# issues J alain&adiou0php0

(adiou, '% /1BB32:aint Paul= ,he Foundation of %niversalis 0tanford: 0tanford Oni+ersityress%(adiou, '% /1BB62 4-otes Toward a Thinking of 'ppearance, ,heoreti'al Writin#s $ondon:?ontinuum, pp% %

(adiou, '% /1BB7a2 4?an ?hange (e Thought@: ' Dialogue with 'lain (adiou /with (runo(osteels2, !lain Dadiou= Philosophy and Its Conditions 'lbany: 0tate Oni+ersity of -ew Jorkress, pp% 171"173%

(adiou, '% /1BB7b2 4The 'd+enture of #rench hilosophy,Bew Left Review , no% 37, pp% 9

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Dews, % /1BB12 4Oncategorical &mperati+es: 'dorno, (adiou, and the =thical Turn,Radi'al Philosophy , no% , pp% 39"32 4;eneric 0o+ereignty: The hilosophy of 'lain (adiou, !n#elaki , +ol% 3,no% 3, pp% A6"A7%

Hallward, % /1BBB2 4=thics without .thers: ' eply to ?ritchley on (adious =thics, Radi'al Philosophy , no% B1, pp% 1

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$acan, K% / A>>a2,he :e inar of a'ques La'an. Dook II= ,he 7#o in Freuds ,heory and in the ,e'hnique of Psy'hoanalysis. GNJ+$GNJJ -ew Jork: G%G% -orton and ?ompany%

$acan, K% / AA>b2,he :e inar of a'ques La'an. Dook MM= 7n'ore. GN E$GN * -ew Jork:G%G% -orton and ?ompany%

$acan, K% / AAB2 4Tele+ision,elevision ! Challen#e to the Psy'hoanalyti' 7sta&lish ent -ew Jork: G%G% -orton and ?ompany, pp% 3%

$acan, K% / AA 2Le : inaire de a'ques La'an. Livre M6II= Lenvers de la psy'hanalyse.GNON$GN aris: Sditions du 0euil%

$acan, K% / AA12,he :e inar of a'ques La'an. Dook 6II= ,he 7thi's of Psy'hoanalysis.GNJN$GNO -ew Jork: G%G% -orton and ?ompany%

$acan, K% / AA32,he :e inar of a'ques La'an. Dook III= ,he Psy'hoses. GNJJ$GNJO -ewJork: G%G% -orton and ?ompany%

$acan, K% / AA72 4 osition of the OnconsciousReadin# :e inar MI= La'ans Four Funda ental Con'epts of Psy'hoanalysis 'lbany: 0tate Oni+ersity of -ew Jork ress, pp%19 %

iek, 0% /1BB a2)id :o e&ody :ay ,otalitarianis ?= Five Interventions in the @HisAuse of

a Botion, $ondon: erso%iek, 0% /1BB b2Repeatin# Lenin, Xagreb: 'rk in%

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iek, 0% /1BB c21n Delief , -ew Jork: outledge%

iek, 0% /1BB d2 4Il ny a pas de rapport reli#ieu" ,La'anian Ink0

iek, 0% /1BB1a2Wel'o e to the )esert of the RealS= Five 7ssays on :epte &er GG and Related )ates , $ondon: erso%

iek, 0% /1BB1b2 4#oreword to the 0econd =dition: =n5oyment within the $imits of eason 'lone, For they know not what they do= 7n-oy ent as a politi'al fa'tor , $ondon: erso/second edition2, pp% l!!!i+%

iek, 0% /1BB1c2 4*& do not order my dreams,*1peras :e'ond )eath , -ew Jork:outledge, pp% B9" B