Auschwitz and the Cunning of Reason
example · philosophical thought experiment ·
retold in 7 talks
Žižek argues that justifying Auschwitz as having 'historical meaning' (e.g., leading to human rights) is an obscenity and theoretically wrong for Hegel, as it implies a divine external teleology that does not exist.
≤2000talks it is told in, per year2026
As told 7
“This would be an obscenity for Hegel. Not only an obscenity but also theoretically wrong.”1:42:32 Slavoj Žižek Masterclass: Jacques Lacan: A Lateral Introduction. Part 3pub. 2018-11-28 · 1:55:54
“why not observe it as an assemblage? We have corpses, worms eating corpses, smoke and so on, all this interaction of elements.”
“analyze Auschwitz as an assemblage like forget about Germans killing Jews look at it as an interaction of actants”
What it carries
one story, many jobs: the ideas this anecdote is deployed to argue, one tally mark per use (an idea page shows the same relation from the other end, as its shelf of stories)
Its cast and sources
populated by
Jane Bennett3Claude Lanzmann3Will Self2Jim Jarmusch1Kirsten Dunst1Gabriel García Márquez1Juan José Saer1Pablo Neruda1
alongside works
Every retelling 7
1:42:32 Slavoj Žižek Masterclass: Jacques Lacan: A Lateral Introduction. Part 3pub. 2018-11-28 · 1:55:54
Žižek argues that justifying Auschwitz as having 'historical meaning' (e.g., leading to human rights) is an obscenity and theoretically wrong for Hegel, as it implies a divine external teleology that does not exist., illustrating cunning of reason,external teleology
Žižek provokes by proposing to view Auschwitz non-ethically as an assemblage, corpses, worms, smoke interacting, arguing one must pass through this zero-point of horror to arrive at a genuine ethical stance., illustrating inhuman view,assemblage,ethics without divine guarantee
Žižek proposes analyzing Auschwitz not as Germans killing Jews, but as an 'inhuman' interaction of actants: Jewish corpses, worms, wood, gas. This highlights the 'utter indifference of nature' and the horror that 'the sun didn't turn dark.', illustrating inhuman view,ethical agency at its zero level
Žižek proposes describing Auschwitz as a flat assemblage of actants, Nazis, inmates, worms eating corpses, fire, in which all are equally agents; he immediately identifies this as an 'utterly obscene vision' that is a phenomenological impossibility for ethical human beings., illustrating assemblage theory at its limit,the obscenity of radical objectivity,inhuman gaze
54:12 Slavoj Žižek Masterclass: Jacques Lacan: A Lateral Introduction. Part 3pub. 2018-11-28 · 1:55:54
Žižek mocks the Hegelian 'cunning of reason' by asking if it implies Auschwitz was a 'blessing in disguise,' calling it obscene to claim catastrophes serve a higher purpose., illustrating concrete universality,cunning of reason
Žižek imagines an emaciated prisoner tearing off his shirt before a Nazi guard and declaring his freedom, and finds this image ridiculous rather than heroic, because genuine extreme humiliation makes the performance of dignity impossible., illustrating dignity presupposes safety,political resistance,the limits of liberal humanism