ASPECTS OF THE GAP PHENOMENON IN S. ŽIŽEK’S PHILOSOPHICAL CONCEPT

Abstract

Introduction. The philosophy of S. Žižek is one of the challenges of our time. It should not be associated with any tradition. It influences the formation of ideas in political philosophy, postmarxism, poststructuralism, structural psychoanalysis. S. Žižek demonstrated the potential use of psychoanalysis for philosophy, actualized the use of the dialectical method in the philosophical study. The philosopher combines the ideas of ethics, philosophy of politics, philosophy of religion with the problem of gap, as an essential characteristic of any existing being In the texts. The aim and tasks are to analyse (in the historical and philosophical context) the influence of the philosophical, culturological, and political scientist conceptions of S. Žižek on the transformation of the idea of the discontinuity proposed by J. Lacan. Research methods. Our study uses a set of methods. The system-structural method has allowed to consider each element of philosophical discourse in the projection on the whole. Hermeneutical analysis of S. Žižek’s texts and the comparative method, allowed to determine the main sources of influence on the views of the philosopher, in the first place, the ideas of J. Lakan and G. Hegel. Discussion. The object of our study is the phenomenon of gap in the philosophical concept of S. Žižek. It correlates with the notion of development and is inherent in the social, political, economic sphere, at every level of civilization development. S. Žižek is an outstanding representative of the philosophy of postmodernism. Conclusions S. Žižek believed that the idea of a gap is the main idea of ontological discourse. The problem of ideology, religion, ethics, politics, the subject is solved by understanding of the gap, which accumulates the postulates of dialectics, psychoanalysis, etc., and actualizes them in the postmodern reality. According to the philosopher, consideration of any existing being is possible due to the concept of the gap, which is identical to the notion of difference. In the opinion of S. Žižek, to realize the existence of a gap in reality at the level of the subject, means the prohibition of the object substitution by an object of his desires, by an illusory, phantasmatic design, a certain symbolic order. S. Žižek noted that the subject has all the full freedom and should not rely on external symbolic resistance, external rational thinking. The philosopher stressed that the concept of the gap implies the constant and the axiomatic nature of antagonism in the political space. To S. Žižek’s mind, philosophy in relation to the world should take an active position of rearrangement in contrast to the position which represents statements and explanations of it.