Zupančič: How to live a life worth living
Summary
TLDRIn this video, Julian introduces Alena Zupan's book 'The Ethics of the Real,' exploring her argument on living an ethical life. Zupan critiques modernity's focus on pleasure and happiness, suggesting we're lost and depressed. She proposes a new ethical framework, the 'ethics of the real,' drawing on Kant and Freud, which views morality as an impossible choice that reveals our true desires. Julian plans a week-long deep dive into the book, aiming to help viewers find meaning and purpose in life.
Takeaways
- 📚 Alena Zupan's book 'The Ethics of the Real' is a philosophical exploration of how to live a good life, focusing on the ethical and moral aspects of existence.
- 🤔 Zupan questions the modern notion of living for pleasure and happiness, suggesting that this pursuit often leads to a sense of loss and lack of purpose.
- 🔄 She contrasts the contemporary desire for personal happiness with the traditional ethical imperative of living according to a higher moral law.
- 🧐 Zupan is influenced by Slavoj Žižek's ideas, particularly the concept of the 'decline of the master' and the search for a new ethical framework in a postmodern world.
- 🤨 The video discusses the 'double bind' of modern life, where people are caught between the desire for authority figures and the postmodern insistence on self-fulfillment.
- 🤓 Kant's ethical framework is highlighted as a break from traditional ethics, emphasizing the impossible nature of ethical decisions and the subjective freedom they require.
- 🚫 Zupan argues that traditional morality often involves suppressing desire, but Kant and Freud suggest that true desire is revealed through the confrontation with ethical impossibility.
- 🎭 The video uses the example of Batman in 'The Dark Knight' to illustrate how ethical choices can reveal true desires and lead to unexpected outcomes.
- 🔑 Zupan proposes a reconceptualization of ethics that recognizes the 'real' as already operative within it, focusing on the pleasure inherent in obligation and prohibition.
- 🌟 The ultimate goal of Zupan's argument is to help individuals find a meaningful life beyond the postmodern trap of alienation and nominal freedom.
Q & A
What is the main argument of Alena Zupan's book 'The Ethics of the Real'?
-Alena Zupan's main argument in 'The Ethics of the Real' is to reframe the philosophical question of how to live a good life. She proposes a new conceptual framework for ethics that does not rely on the discourse of the master, aiming to address the modern dilemma of living for pleasure alone while seeking a life with meaning and purpose.
How does Alena Zupan relate her argument to Slavoj Žižek's philosophy?
-Zupan's central argument is similar to that of Slavoj Žižek, suggesting that in modern times, we are told to live for pleasure and happiness, yet this leads to a decline in meaning and purpose. Both philosophers argue that there is a need for an ethical imperative beyond mere pleasure-seeking.
What does Zupan mean by the 'discourse of the master'?
-The 'discourse of the master' refers to a traditional ethical framework where individuals are expected to live in accordance with sacred or natural laws. Zupan critiques this framework, arguing that it does not address the complexities of modern life and the search for meaning.
How does Zupan view the contemporary desire for a return to the master?
-Zupan sees the contemporary desire for a return to the master as a reaction to the perceived lack of meaning in modern life. However, she argues that this is not a satisfactory solution, as it does not truly address the ethical and moral complexities of living a good life.
What is the 'ethics of the real' as described by Zupan?
-The 'ethics of the real' is Zupan's term for an ethical framework that recognizes the inherent impossibility and complexity of ethical decisions. It is not about following a set of rules but about confronting the reality of our desires and the choices we make in the face of moral dilemmas.
How does Zupan's concept of ethics relate to Kantian ethics?
-Zupan draws upon Kantian ethics to argue that morality is not about acting in correspondence with a predefined good but about making radically subjective decisions in the face of impossible choices. This aligns with Kant's notion of the moral law as a demand for the impossible.
What is the significance of desire in Zupan's ethical framework?
-In Zupan's framework, desire is central to ethics. She argues that traditional ethics suppresses desire, but true ethics reveals our true desires, especially when faced with moral impossibilities. This confrontation with desire is essential for understanding our ethical choices.
How does Zupan suggest we find purpose and live fulfilled lives?
-Zupan suggests that to find purpose and live fulfilled lives, we must first understand the 'ethics of the real' and the role of desire within it. By recognizing the pleasure within obligation and prohibition, we can identify a life worth living and set ourselves free from the postmodern trap of alienation.
What is the role of the 'impossible choice' in Zupan's ethical theory?
-The 'impossible choice' is a central concept in Zupan's ethical theory. It represents the moment when we are confronted with a moral dilemma that we cannot resolve through traditional ethical frameworks, forcing us to make a subjective decision that reflects our true desires and values.
How does Zupan's argument relate to the contemporary search for happiness and self-fulfillment?
-Zupan critiques the contemporary focus on happiness and self-fulfillment as superficial and lacking depth. She argues that true fulfillment comes from understanding and navigating the complexities of ethical choices, rather than simply seeking pleasure or adhering to self-help ideologies.
Outlines
📚 Introduction to Alena Zupan's Ethical Framework
In this introductory paragraph, Julian sets the stage for a week-long exploration of Alena Zupan's book, 'The Ethics of the Real.' He proposes a close reading of the book, focusing on Zupan's essential argument about living a good life. Zupan, a Slovenian psychoanalytic theorist and philosopher, reframes the philosophical question of how to live ethically and morally in the modern context. Julian introduces the concept of a 'conceptual framework' for an ethics that resists the traditional 'discourse of the master.' He also mentions the similarity between Zupan's and Slavoj Žižek's arguments, suggesting that modernity has led to a decline in the master's discourse, leaving individuals lost and seeking a return to authority figures for guidance. Julian invites viewers to support his work through patronage and promises to explain these complex ideas in simpler terms throughout the video series.
🔄 Kantian Ethics and the Impossibility of Morality
This paragraph delves into the philosophical underpinnings of Alena Zupan's work, particularly her engagement with Immanuel Kant's ethics. Julian explains that traditional ethics are often seen as a guide for living in accordance with the good, following natural or sacred laws. However, Kant's approach to ethics is a departure from this, focusing on the 'impossible' nature of morality. Kant argues that morality is not about applying a set of ethical laws but about confronting impossible decisions that force individuals to make radically subjective choices. This leads to the idea that ethics is not just a framework for action but an acknowledgment of the fundamental impossibility of knowing how to act. Zupan builds on this by discussing the 'ethics of the real,' which is not about aligning with reality but recognizing how reality is already shaping our ethical decisions. Julian suggests that understanding this concept is crucial for Zupan's proposed new ethical framework.
🎭 The Ethics of the Real and Contemporary Dilemmas
In the final paragraph, Julian discusses the application of Zupan's 'ethics of the real' to contemporary life. He points out that modern individuals often feel lost and without a clear purpose, caught between the desire for authoritative guidance and the postmodern insistence on self-fulfillment. Zupan argues that to find a meaningful life, one must reconceptualize ethics to include the inherent pleasure within obligation and prohibition. Julian uses the example of Batman from 'The Dark Knight' to illustrate how ethical choices can reveal true desires, even when they seem impossible. He concludes by emphasizing the need to move beyond the superficial pursuit of happiness and to engage with the deeper, more complex aspects of ethics and morality. Julian invites viewers to join him for a week-long close reading of Zupan's book, promising to explore these ideas in greater depth.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Ethics of the Real
💡Discourse of the Master
💡Modernity
💡Alienation
💡Pleasure
💡Impossibility
💡Kantian Ethics
💡Freudian
💡Postmodernism
💡Authentic Desire
Highlights
Julian proposes a close reading of Alena Zupan's book 'The Ethics of the Real'.
Zupan's essential argument is to rephrase the philosophical question of how to live a good life.
The goal is to outline a conceptual framework for an Ethics that refuses to be based on the discourse of the master.
Zupan's central argument is similar to Slavoj Zizek's, focusing on the decline of the discourse of the master in modernity.
Modernity is characterized by a pursuit of pleasure and happiness, which leads to a sense of loss and depression.
Zupan suggests we are stuck in a double bind between a desire for authority and the postmodern imperative to live for ourselves.
A new ethical framework is proposed to help find purpose and live a fulfilling life.
Zupan emphasizes the importance of returning to Kantian ethics, specifically with a Freudian lean.
Kant's ethics focus on the impossible, where morality is a demand for the impossible.
Ethics is seen as a disturbance in the smooth course of events, reflecting our uncertainty about how to act.
Zupan argues that the ethics of the real is about recognizing the real as it is already operative in ethics.
Ethics revolves around desire, not the forgoing of it, which is a traditional philosophical perspective.
The ethical choice reveals our true desire, even when faced with the backdrop of prohibition and ethical maxim.
Zupan uses the example of Batman in 'The Dark Knight' to illustrate the impossibility of ethical choices.
The ethics of the real can help us regain a life worth living and set ourselves free from the postmodern trap.
Julian invites viewers to join a week-long close reading of each chapter of 'The Ethics of the Real'.
Transcripts
hello and good morning everybody it's me
Julian today I would like to propose
that we engage in a close reading of
Alena Zupan's book the ethics of the
real in fact for the remainder of the
week I would like to talk about each of
these chapters in successive order but
today I want to start with her essential
argument which is to rephrase an age-old
philosophical question namely how do you
live a good life how do we live in a way
that corresponds with the good how can
we lead an ethical and moral life that
is essentially Zupan's question in this
book and her goal is to outline what she
calls a conceptual framework for an
Ethics which refuses to be an Ethics
based on the discourse of the master and
that's what I'm going to try to explain
here in simple terms and hopefully this
can be helpful to you either in your own
study and learning or perhaps more
generally in your life and your
contemplations on how to live well first
of all thank you to everybody watching
today and if you'd like to download my
ebooks as well as my lectures and
private seminars please do consider
becoming a
patron so Alena zupanic if you didn't
know already is a Slovenian
psychoanalytic theorist and philosopher
and her Central argument is very similar
to that of slavo zek who is perhaps
slightly better known in fact one could
summarize her basic argument as follows
she writes or as I summarize her
argument she proposes that in modern
times we don't know what to live for we
are told that we live to enhance our
pleasure and seek happiness we are free
although only nominally so which is to
say we are free to the extent that we
are willing to sell our labor and our
time lol's position is that modernity
ushers in a decline of the discourse of
the master like n's last man we live for
pleasure alone and yet for Lon there is
no pleasure possible without the ethical
imperative of the master essentially
what that means is that in today's day
and age we don't know what to live for
we are told that the highest ethical
goal is to live for ourselves to seek
our own happiness and our own pleasure
and yet in a sense we're more lost than
never before we're more depressed it's
harder to find something worth living
for something that gives us meaning and
purpose in fact one might paraphrase
juvenile's uh well-known verse as
zupanic does that we lose for the sake
of living all that makes life worth
living or to paraphrase claudell the
only thing worse than dying is to lose
one's reason to live essentially that's
the state of things as zupanic describes
it the modern alienated lost and
depressed subject who is free and yet
paralyzed who does not know what to do
with themselves and therefore is looking
for a return to the master someone who
can tell them how to live who can help
them along the way in fact Zupan's basic
argument is that we are stuck in a
double bind between a popular desire to
return to a figure of Parental Authority
a discourse of the master be it a
strongman politician be it a figure of
Parental Authority It Like Jordan
Peterson or other self-help gurus versus
the postmodern imperative to Simply live
for ourselves to follow no ideology to
Simply enhance our pleasure to optimize
our body and our mind to be productive
and to perform being happy for others
and she says amidst this trap this
double bind of a return to the master
versus making yourself the ultimate
master not neither of which are
satisfactory Solutions against this
double bind this postmodern trap we have
to propose a new ethical framework and
what I'm going to try to do in the
remainder of this video is to lay out
the basic components of her introduction
and the argument that she makes so how
do we lay out a new ethical framework
that allows us to find purpose and live
in a way that makes us feel fulfilled
and content well for zupanic the most
important thing is that we go back to
considering Canan ethics but not just
Conan ethics but specifically if you
will a Freudian leanian conception of
contient Ethics now why Kant and why
morality first of all from a traditional
classical perspective the age-old
philosophical question is how does one
lead a good life which to say the
ethical question is about the
distribution of the good what does it
mean to act in a way that is good and
thereby to create a world that is a
reflection of the good morality is here
usually seen as the possibility or the
obligation of the individual subject to
live in accordance with the good
essentially it's a reified version of
the discourse of the master which is to
say that a good life is to follow sacred
or natural laws and if you live in
correspondence with them you will lead a
good life in fact this is part of the
Contemporary popular desire for a return
to the master when it comes in the guise
of saying that we are unhappy because we
no longer live in harmony with nature
Etc here we essentially personify nature
in a classicist
sense however Zanes argues that Kant
stages a break with traditional ethics
the conent ethical framework doesn't
focus on ethics as about the
distribution of the good or the
possibility or the imperative of acting
in correspondence with the good instead
Kant inverses the ethical frame inverses
the ethical framework by emphasizing The
Impossible in fact from a strictly
contient perspective morality is the
demand for the impossible this works on
two levels on one level we don't really
know what the master wants from us cont
essentially Hyster azes the subject
which to say says we don't truly know
what God wants or needs from us this
means that we have to act in
correspondence with what we believe God
would ideally want us to do this is a
strictly speaking theological problem of
course but Kant also applies this to
ethics and Morality In general for K
morality is not simply the application
of the individual particular will
according to an ethical law instead
ethics is that which confronts us with
an impossible decision by which our very
impossibility of knowing how to act
confronts us with the moral or to put
that a little bit less densely K
essentially argues that morality is when
we don't know how to act when we are
confronted with an impossible choice
that reflects back onto us not only the
precarity of our own ethical positions
and maxims but precisely it forces us to
make a radically subjective free
decision as to how to act
this is why Zanes argues that perhaps
the most precise definition of the
ethical is that it is quote unquote that
which in relation to the smooth course
of events as governed by the reality
principle ethics is ethics always
appears as something excessive as a
disturbing interruption in other words
ethics and precisely morality as an
impossible choice is what disrupts our
seeming certainty about how the world
works about how we ought to act
therefore the ethical isn't simply an AR
priori framework that governs our
actions but is precisely the name of a
certain fundamental impossibility that
we don't know how to act that we don't
know what we want versus what we ought
to do this is what zupanic drawing upon
Lon refers to as the ethics of the real
and she says that one of the key
conceptual arguments that she wants to
make is that the ethics of the real is
not an Ethics oriented towards the real
but instead recognizing the real as it
is already operative in ethics so how is
the real already operative in
ethics well essentially she says that
LA's the first to articulate the real
within the content ethical system namely
that ethics isn't about forgoing desire
but that ethics secretly revolves around
desire so how does this work well from a
traditional classicist philosophical
perspective the ethical imperative which
becomes a moral One For The Individual
subject is to put aside your desire
essentially you don't act upon your
desire so that you do the right thing
this is why Freud already argued in what
zones characterizes as a blow of
disillusionment opopo Ethics Freud
already argued that the categorical
imperative the moral law was nothing
other than the super ego namely that
which you ought to do as long as you put
aside your ID your desire what you
really want this is the classical
framework of Ethics you do the right
thing which means you don't do the thing
you want to do Kant problematizes this
by saying that it is only the ethical
that reveals to us our true desire it is
only when faced with the impossibility
of morality that we really realize what
we want this has two consequences on the
one hand it means that there is a
perverse pleasure within the moral and
ethical position which is to say I don't
have to make a choice I simply do what I
am told we submit to the discourse of
the master in the ethical like the
prison guard who says that he was simply
carrying out orders this is not merely
an excuse this is an obfuscation of the
secret and perverse desire that exists
within making oneself subject to the
discourse of the master but secondly and
perhaps more importantly for Lal we only
actualize our desire against this
backdrop of both prohibition and ethical
Maxim an example that I like to use is
from the Batman movie um The Dark Knight
in which Batman faces an impossible
Choice does he rescue his love interest
or does he rescue um Harvey Dent no is
it yeah Harvey Dent now what's crucial
in the sequence in the film is that
Batman chooses his love interest and yet
the Joker has already anticipated this
and reversed their locations therefore
Batman who believes that he is rescuing
his loved one ends up fulfilling his
duty and rescuing Harvey Dent this leads
us to the very pessimistic conclusion of
the film a kind of noble lie in which
Batman realizes that in order to uphold
the ideological illusion of Gotham as a
place of Justice he himself must become
the villain therefore inverting his own
identity it's a beautiful dialectical
sequence and yet from a lanan
perspective it is precisely this
impossibility of the ethical choice that
reveals Batman's true desire namely not
simply rescuing Rachel but precisely to
be the shunned one the excessive element
that must stand outside and against
Gotham's
identity now to return to the original
argument remember we said that one of
the problems of contemporary modern life
life is that we don't know how to live
we don't know what it means to identify
a life that is worth living and Zupan's
basic argument which I would like to
explore uh throughout this week in a
day-by-day close reading of the
remainder of This Book Is that in order
to determine how to live we must first
understand and return to a conceptual
framework of the ethics of the real
which is to say not simply to observe
ethics as the discourse of the master
telling us what to do 10 easy steps to
live a better life the temptation of
self-help and the self-help isation of
philosophy but also not simply to give
in to the post-modern lie that we live
to be happy that we live to be the best
version of ourselves instead we have to
identify the pleasure that lies within
obligation and prohibition but also how
we might free ourselves from this false
pleasure the false pleasure the perverse
pleasure of submitting ourselves to the
master therefore zupanic argues that a
reconceptualization of what she calls
the ethics of the real can help us
identify not only how to regain a life
worth living but perhaps also to
properly set ourselves free so as to no
longer just be nominally so to go beyond
the postmodern trap of alienated life
that is zup panic's argument in the
ethics of the real uh and if you'd like
to learn more about this for the next
week I'm going to be engaged in a
day-by-day reading of each chapter with
you I hope that has been helpful in your
own studies and I will see you tomorrow
and please don't forget to become a
patron
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