The Parallax View (book)
The Parallax View (2006) is a book by Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek. Like many of Žižek's books, it covers a wide range of topics, including philosophy, psychoanalysis, neuroscience, politics, literature, and film. Some of the authors discussed in detail include Jacques Lacan, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Karl Marx, Immanuel Kant, Martin Heidegger, Alain Badiou, Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, Daniel Dennett, Antonio Damasio, Franz Kafka, and Henry James.
Cover of the first edition | |
| Author | Slavoj Žižek |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Grigori Shpolyanski |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | MIT Press |
Publication date | February 2006 (U.S.) |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover and Paperback) |
| Pages | 448 |
| ISBN | 978-0262512688 |
The book was described by Žižek as his magnum opus, and it is considered notable because Žižek attempts therein to outline his system of thought. According to Žižek's introduction to the book, it is divided into three main sections (philosophical, scientific, and political) in order to introduce "a minimum of conceptual order." Although the book was largely well-received, some questioned whether it truly had a systematic approach.
The most enduring concept developed throughout the book is the parallax, which refers to the different apparent position of an object when it is seen from different perspectives. Žižek uses this idea, which comes from Kojin Karatani's Transcritique, to rework the Hegelian dialectic from a materialist perspective.