^ It's the Postmodern Sift Talk Generator. The primary theme of Dietrich’s analysis of dialectic discourse is not, in fact, discourse, but neodiscourse. Lacan’s essay on cultural theory implies that the collective is part of the futility of language, but only if dialectic discourse is valid; otherwise, Debord’s model of Derridaist reading is...oh fuck!! Get some rags and some ice!! Choggie stuck his hand under the lawn-mower again!!!

I don't know much about existentialism, but I have been doing a lot of readings from and about Jacques Lacan over the past few months. The final 30 seconds or so of this video represent what he says about the creation of self-identity in the Imaginary or Mirror phase of childhood development.

>> ^HadouKen24:

I don't think that's quite what he means. "Faith and trust, at least in an interpersonal context," is insufficient for torture to be ruled out as a possibility. There are individuals in whom we cannot and should not have faith and trust, as Zizek understands (and points out later in the lecture, in the example of Hitler).
That said, I don't think it's all that clear how his criticism of Harris actually does work. He never quite makes explicit the logical connection between the concept of the "Neighbor" and the impermissibility of torture. After this video, he gets lost in a rabbit trail explaining what the Neighbor means and how it relates both to modern politics and the illusion of really connecting with others.
I think he may have intended to point out a problem with reducing ethical behavior to a set of scientific principles, since, after all, we're free individuals (and thus Neighbors), and such calculations are inconsistent with freedom.
Or he maybe he just thought that the torture Harris is talking about is another instance of demonizing the Other. Who knows?
One of my philosophy professors used get lost and fail to complete his arguments like this. He's a brilliant guy, and I almost never missed taking a class with him, but his lectures could drive you nuts sometimes.




You're right (especially about his talking style)

...the "need for promises", and "the Neighbor" have nothing per se to do with torture, it's rather with Harris comments on faith.


From this:
http://www.lacan.com/symptom8_articles/zizek8.html

"Consequently, what Harris aims at with his imagined "truth pill" is nothing less than the abolition of the dimension of the Neighbor: the tortured subject is no longer a Neighbor, but an object whose pain is neutralized, reduced to a property that has to be dealt with in a rational utilitarian calculus (so much pain is tolerable if it prevents a much greater amount of pain) - what disappears here is the abyss of the infinity that pertains to a subject. It is thus significant that the book which argues for torture is also the book entitled The End of Belief - not, however, in the obvious sense of "You see, it is only our belief in God, the divine in junction to love your neighbor, that ultimately prevents us from torturing people!", but in a much more radical sense. Another subject (and, ultimately, subject as such) is for Lacan not something directly given, but a "presupposition," something presumed, an object of belief - how can I ever be sure that what I see in front of me is another subject, not a depthless flat biological machine?

My interpolation -

it all has to do with the fact that you can discus weather a chair in front of you really exists, but in the end everyone can go home and have a cup of tea, without agreeing, thats why epistemology is easy, we can all believe in crazy things like "matter" or "god" without there being a real problem. But when we asks the question - is this in front of me a Man, a Person, you have to say Yes, emphatically. You have to say "I believe".

You're point about Hitler is also right, but lets say you have Hitler in a basement, If you're a normal being you really wouldn't like hearing the screams of a man in pain, seeing pain in another Person, even if he is Hitler, because let's face it, he was a Man.

What Harris is saying is that this can be dealt with (science is not the problem, you could imagine it without a "pill")by removing the spastic screams - even if it is just a theoretical supposition. It's not about the impermissibility of torture, as far as I can see, it's about how we perceive the lump of flesh in front of us. Harris is not only destroying it's "infinite dimension" but also our ability to see it and feel it. You can torture Hitler, but the least you could experience the horror of the process


Any way, thats my thoughts...
Who's up for some enchillada?

Ok, here are Lacan and Mao-Tse-Tung, loved-things destructors, sleeper of feets, food askers, general entertainers and the best cats in the universe.

ahn...
My name is Renato. I´m 'pregnant' of my first daughter, which we´ll call Lucia.
I´m 33, age of dead christs.
I have two cats, Mao-Tse-Tung and Lacan , who brighten my days and nights.
They like to break things.

I live in Sao Paulo, Brazil and am a partner at a 3D animation company, TSI, doing work mostly for advertising and architecture.
I´m originally a journalist, but went to grad school in NY, on the (in)famous ITP - Intergalactic Telecommunications Program, or something similar. I miss NY.

I like to write when I am procrastinating more serious work, but videosift is getting in the way of that. I love to snowboard, despite the fact that after a motorcycle crash and some time at the hospital, the doctor forbid me. Still I went for ten days at Whistler and after two months I was back at being almost ok. Worth it. Now I sold the bike to pay for all those diapers to come.
(queue music: Gogol Bordello - Undestructable)

http://othervoices.org/2.2/index.html

here's an interesting video
- Lacan's plea for fundementalism

Ergo Proxy is a science fiction suspense anime television series directed by Shukou Murase, with screenplay by Dai Sato et al. This is the opening that starts off the show from episode 3, the song is "Kiri" by Monoral. Ergo Proxy features a combination of 2D digital cell animation, 3D computer modeling and digital special effects. The series has some cyber punk elements.

The story initially takes place in a futuristic dome city called Romdo, built to protect its citizens after global environmental apocalypse. In this utopia, humans and androids (AutoRevs) coexist with each other peacefully under a total management system. A series of murders committed by berserk robots infected with the Cogito Virus are starting to jeopardize the delicate balance of the social order. Behind the scenes, the government is conducting secret experiments on a mysterious humanoid lifeform called Proxy, which is believed to hold the key to the survival of mankind.

In an interview, Dai Sato describes his latest project.

"It is set in the future. A group of robots become infected with something called the Cogito virus, and become aware of their own existence. So these robots, which had been tools of humans, decide to go on an adventure to search for themselves. They have to decide whether the virus that infected them created their identity, or whether they gained their identity through their travels. This question is meant to represent our own debate over whether we become who we are because of our environment, or because of things that are inherent in us. The robots are all named after philosophers: Derrida and Lacan and Husserl."

It's not licensed yet so you're allowed to watch it online on various streaming websites. You can catch the first episode on Youtube. Be warned it will be pulled eventually.

<ahref="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FzzZUQuGI8">Ergo Proxy - Pulse of Awakening/awakening 01

I found this to be a very cool and cerebral anime series.

- More @ <ahref="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergo_Proxy">Wikipedia