Bentham’s fictions
example · Jeremy Bentham ·
retold in 3 talks
Bentham distinguishes real objects from fictitious entities (wealth, honesty). Žižek argues that to speak about reality consistently, one must use fictions; erasing fictions erases reality itself.
≤2000talks it is told in, per year2026
As told 3
“if you erase fictions out of language, you lose reality itself. to talk consistently about reality, you need pictions.”27:24 Slavoj Žižek Masterclass: Jacques Lacan: A Lateral Introduction. Part 6pub. 2018-11-28 · 1:39:14
“if we take away the fiction we lose reality itself it's impossible to describe to grasp reality without fictions”
“We can make this distinction, but you cannot then drop fictions and keep only reality. If you erase fictions, you lose reality also.”
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)
contents · one story, 3 jobsuses
Bentham’s theory of fictions
×1
talking about what you don't know
×1
necessary fiction
×1
Its cast and sources
populated by
Alan Watts1Jerry Brown1Reiner Schürmann1Joseph Campbell1Emmanuel Faye1Alfred Rosenberg1Orlando Figes1William Harrison Hays1
alongside works
Every retelling 3
27:24 Slavoj Žižek Masterclass: Jacques Lacan: A Lateral Introduction. Part 6pub. 2018-11-28 · 1:39:14
Bentham distinguishes real objects from fictitious entities (wealth, honesty). Žižek argues that to speak about reality consistently, one must use fictions; erasing fictions erases reality itself., illustrating Bentham’s theory of fictions,talking about what you don't know
Žižek cites Bentham's Theory of Fictions as anticipating Lacan, against naive empiricism, Bentham argues that subtracting fiction doesn't reveal pure reality but destroys it, making fiction a necessary supplement to reality., illustrating necessity of fiction,virtual fiction
Bentham distinguishes real entities from symbolic fictions, then admits you cannot erase the fictions and retain reality, reality depends on fictions. This supports Žižek's point that ideological illusion is constitutive of material social reality., illustrating commodity fetishism,real abstraction,fiction and reality