The Sublime Object of Ideology
by Slavoj Žižek · first published 2008
67% recommend33% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Foundational work on ideology that draws on Lacan and Hegel to explain how ideas feel natural and shape subjectivity; recommended for readers who want serious theory, though it is dense and academic.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
The Sublime Object of Ideology is a 1989 book by the Slovenian philosopher and cultural theorist Slavoj Žižek. It is widely considered his masterpiece ¹. In this book, Žižek thematizes the Kantian notion of the sublime in order to liken ideology to the experience of something that is absolutely vast and powerful beyond all perception and objective intelligibility ¹. He also provides an analysis of "How did Marx Invent the Symptom?", in which he compares the ways in which the notion of symptom runs through the work of philosopher Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis ¹.
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…was in the 19th century. I advise you to read modern Marxist works, such as Spectres of Marx, The Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord, and particularly almost all of Zizek's work (in particular The Sublime Object of Ideology), which I must recommend. Of particular note is The Culture Industry by Adorno, commonly associated with the Frankfurt School.
on “Apple and Google embody two alternative models of capitalism” ↗…ideology. In other words, what you think of as moderate and not ideological is a result of your ideology itself. For a more thorough, very academic examination of ideology, I can recommend the book The Sublime Object of Ideology.
on “Elon Musk to join Twitter’s board of directors” ↗Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit. Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. Hofstadter's Godel, Escher, Bach. I also recommend Zizek's The Sublime Object of Ideology, but it's dense, so his film The Pervert's Guide to Ideology is a good stand in.
on “Simulacra and Simulation” ↗Simulacra and Simulation - Jean Baudrillard Dialectic of Enlightenment - Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno The Sublime Object of Ideology - Slavoj Zizek Sources of the Self - Charles Taylor
on “Ask HN: Best Philosophical Books?” ↗…argue that currents in philosophy to us Lacan and Freud to read capitalist subjectivity alongside new interpretations of Hegel have shifted the field tremendously, starting with the 1989 work of Zizek Sublime Object of Ideology. Over the decades this work has increased in relevance as a way of understanding a way out of our current predicament.
on “What should we make of the return of Sigmund Freud?” ↗…ideology. If you'd like to delve deeper into the theory of ideology and how it functions, I'd recommend the works of philosophy legend and ideology expert Slavoj Zizek. There's his seminal work, The Sublime Object of Ideology, which goes into this at depth, but is a very dry and academic read. If you'd like something a bit more digestible, I would recommend the movie The Pervert's Guide to Ideology, which uses a more pop-sci…
on “Italian parliament votes for return to nuclear energy” ↗The Sublime Object of Ideology (1989) by Žižek
on “Ask HN: Which books would you recommend to me that had a big impact on you” ↗If you think there isn't a lot of substance I don't think you've actually read any of his stuff. Sublime Object of Ideology and his work on Lacan in general are well-respected. There's not a lot of nonsense in his theoretical work at all. When he engages the public, or whatever you find on youtube which is what I suspect…
on “John Carpenter’s ‘They Live’ was supposed to be a warning” ↗…claimed to be extra-political, so Žižek argues that ideologies are always presented by their proponents as being discourses about Things too sacred to profane by politics. Hence, Žižek’s bold opening in The Sublime Object of Ideology is to claim that today ideology has not so much disappeared from the political landscape as come into its own. It is exactly because of this success, Žižek argues, that ideology has also been able to…
on “Saying “All Lives Matter” to Siri Now Redirects You to Blacklivesmatter.com” ↗…take is that our perception of reality largely consists of or is shaped/defined by the ideology we have been raised in, and as a result we simply can't "see" objective reality itself. Slavoj Žižek: The Sublime Object of Ideology https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtIckkHsUQ4 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18912.The_Sublime_Object...
on “Platforms' current attempts to regulate misinformation amplify opinion power” ↗The book Sublime Object of Ideology (Zizek) and a second volume due soon attempts an interdisciplinary reframing of the theory of everything - working with Quantum Physicists and Material Hegelian/Lacanian philosophy. I am a philosopher…
on “Confessions of a Theoretical Physicist” ↗> Sublime Object of Ideology and his work on Lacan in general are well-respected. There's not a lot of nonsense in his theoretical work at all. Well respected by some and not others. Lacan as a philosopher has boosters and detractors...much…
on “John Carpenter’s ‘They Live’ was supposed to be a warning” ↗…really ‘holding us’ only when we do not feel any opposition between it and reality - that is, when the ideology succeeds in determining the mode of our everyday experience of reality itself. >---THE SUBLIME OBJECT OF IDEOLOGY --- >even when the old star trek stuff, which is also quite diverse, is well regarded Roddenberry would be denounced as the king of social justice warriors if he were writing today. (So would Rod Serling.)…
on “Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on what it means to be “an African writer”” ↗