Ontology and Sexual Difference

’One splits into two, two doesn’t merge into one’. The slogan made quite a stir in its day, combining the air of a purely mathematical axiom with a political mandate. Under the cloak of a universal truth there lies a political dagger. The formula combines under the same heading a mathematical adage, an ontological statement, and a political stance. So why does one split into two, necessarily, in mathematics, in ontology, and in politics? And why, once we arrive at Two, at a foundational split, can we never return to the supposed unity of One? The different lectures will explore this problem from Hegel to Lacan, from sexuality to politics.

Programme

Monday March 28

13:30 – 14:00: Welcome, Christoph Holzhey and Aaron Schuster
14:00 – 15:30: Mladen Dolar, “One Divides Into Two”
16:00 – 17:30: Alenka Zupančič, “Realism in Psychoanalysis”
18:00 – 19:30: Slavoj Žižek, “Hegel as a Critic of Marx: King, Sex, Rabble, and War”

Tuesday March 29

13:30 – 14:00: Welcome, Christoph Holzhey and Gal Kirn
14:00 – 15:30: Mladen Dolar, “Hegel and Freud: Negativity and its Vicissitudes”
16:00 – 17:30: Alenka Zupančič, “Ontology and Sexual Difference”
18:00 – 19:30: Slavoj Žižek, “Hegel: Universality, Sexual Difference, and Differentia Specifica”

Wednesday March 30

15:00 – 17:00: “One Divides Into Two: Rethinking Dialectics and Contemporary Politics”. Opening statements by Mladen Dolar, Alenka Zupančič, and Slavoj Žižek, followed by general discussion