Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience

Really smart, provocative and actually great reading ... the robust segmentation always elicits reaction in me! Not always in agreement ..but humour and allusions to ideas and other writers .. always engaging .. highly recommend

Necessary reading, as AI and increasingly "smart" technology become the norm in our society. Zizek covers a number of topics here, but all concerning the connection between digital machines and the mental processes of the human brain. I enjoyed most Zizek's discussion of what being a free human can really mean now that machines can 'read' our minds and shape our experiences. If you find yourself curious about the digital police state, this will be an interesting read for you. The exploration on the limits of language is also an interesting component here.

One note, if you're looking for an introduction to Zizek's work, this is not the book I'd chose to do so, as I'd recommend being at least semi-familiar with the work of Hegel, Marx, Kant, and Freud before reading this one. As always with Zizek, even if you don't agree with all his conclusions, you'll enjoy reading him still.

I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review from Netgalley.

Unless you're familiar with reading philosophical papers or philosophy text, I highly suggest you skip this one. If you're familiar with the way philosophical reading can sometimes be, this presents some very interesting premises and a good discussion. However, there are some sections I do question the method of execution in explanation. Overall, this was a well researched and clearly delineated discussion.

This ARC seems to be a wrong version. Full of broken sentences and covered by not to be sold, this copy did not seem right for reading. If you can send me a better version, I am happy to read and review.

I've been a quasi-fan of Zizek for a long time, fascinated with his way of thinking, yet mainly looking from the outside, however, "Hegel in a wired brain" has both some interesting points made here and there, and some buried beneath verbose padding.

Slavoj Zizek has been a very influential and interesting figure to me in regards to philosophy. Oftentimes, I am attracted to his way of thinking, yet vehemently disagreeing with some of his conclusions. On the other hand, you can’t help but love the guy. If there is one other philosopher who gives me the same mix of emotions, it’s Hegel. So what could be better than putting them both together?

In 2020, we are celebrating the 250th anniversary of the birth of Hegel. Zizek reflects on this with a question, “Is Hegel just a historical curiosity or does his thought still address us?” (p.1) He continues on by explaining the dominant ideas of previous years, whether that be Foucault, Derrida, or Marx. We come to his first remark about Hegel’s ideas shortly after. Zizek argues that Hegel’s “Absolute knowing” is not a claim of premonition or omnipotence but it “stands precisely for the realization of an unsurpassable limit.”(p.1) He supports this by quoting Hegel directly from his work “Philosophy of Right.”

In a subsection titled “A Hegelian approach” Zizek explains further where he’s coming from. He says “the triad that defines my philosophical stance is…Spinoza, Kant and Hegel.”(p.2) His reasoning is as follows. Spinoza is the pinnacle of “realist ontology”, Kant takes a “transcendental turn” and Hegel works with the phenomena without appealing to a pre-Kantian realism. In Zizek’s mind, all of these work together in one way or another. Zizek announces the premise of his book later on and his premise is a big one. He says that Hegel has provided us with the “ultimate stand for thinking” and what Hegel provided was an “outline of an inconsistent totality.”(p.11) Zizek, throughout this book, consistently applies the Hegelian approach to various philosophical topics.

He gets into some serious topics, such as the “digital police state.” (p.29) Here Zizek reasons with us about what we consider to be social freedom. After his discussion of surveillance capitalism and Fichte’s response to Hegel in general, he goes further to explain what he means by the “wired brain”. There is a helpful graph that shows many arrows pointing to the chronological and functional order of what Zizek is talking about. (p.44-47) If liberal democracy is replaced because of the aforementioned problems, what replaces it? This is a question that Zizek asks the reader. (p.49) In this chapter, Zizek talks about the benefits of Communism, along with what it is and isn’t. He sees communism as more than just a social vision or revolution but a complex and nuanced position.

In chapter 4, Zizek gets into some theology. Given that he deems Platonov’s version of Communism as Gnostic. (p.67) Here Zizek does get into some Gnostic ideas, such as humans becoming gods, though he doesn’t seem to mean that in the same sense that a Gnostic might have meant it in earlier times. Zizek makes a lot of connections to the Bible and Communism throughout this work as well, such as in chapter 5 when he uses the Fall as an analogy for the entire chapter.(p.90-95) Next, Zizek talks about the Unconscious and draws heavily from Freud’s conception of the Unconscious. He ties in this idea with various social issues and ties it together with this idea he has been bringing up throughout the book, Singularity.(p.107) He ends the book with a treatise on the digital apocalypse.

Throughout this book, Zizek does a good job making the philosophy involved fairly comprehensible. I still wouldn’t recommend this to someone who hasn’t read much philosophy. However, I found Zizek’s application of Hegel remarkably refreshing, yet I was not surprised, Zizek on Hegel has probably been my favorite thing besides Hegel on Hegel.

It's difficult to review the book separate from my experience of the galley. The heady philosophy was interrupted and often seemed to have been cut off by the digital watermarking. What I was able to read was very interesting and compelling as digital spaces we know now are and have been an evolving space that puts new pressures on our philosophies and world views. It was difficult to get an accurate impression on which to review but the sections I could piece together kept me going, I'll be looking into this after it's published as it offers interesting insights and analysis (albeit in this galley it was a search between watermarks).