Slavoj Zizek

What is really happening when something happens? In the second in a new series of accessible, commute-length books of original thought, Slavoj Žižek, one of the world's greatest living philosophers, examines the new and highly-contested concept of Event. An Event can be an occurrence that shatters ordinary life, a radical political rupture, the emergence of a religious belief, the rise of a new art form, or an intense experience such as falling in love. After an event, nothing remains the same even if there are no obvious large changes. Taking us on a trip which stops at different definitions of Event, Žižek addresses fundamental questions such as: How much are we agents of our own fates? Which conditions must be met for us to perceive something as really existing? In a world that's constantly changing, is anything new really happening? Drawing on references from Plato to arthouse cinema, the Big Bang to Buddhism, Event is a journey into philosophy at its most exciting and elementary.

Philosophy in Transit

Event

Jaycee

And this then brings us to Heidegger's notion of Event (Ereignis): for Heidegger, Event has nothing to do with processes that go on out there in reality. Event designates a new epochal disclosure of Being, the emergence of a new world (a horizon of meaning t et within which all entities appear). Catastrophe thus occurs befote the (f)act: catastrophe is not the atomic self-destruction of humanity, but the relation to nature which reduces it to its techno-scientific exploitation.

Event quotes

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