Neoliberalism, ideology and Covid-19: An analysis from the perspective of Slavoj Žižek

This article looks at the Covid-19 pandemic as a contingent factor in, and its revelatory effect on, various contemporary expressions of neoliberal ideology in Latin America. Based on philosophical and psychoanalytical concepts of a Lacanian nature fundamentally proposed by Slavoj Žižek, it examines the critical uses of the notion of ideology in its various manifestations: fear of the other, imposition of the logic of self-promotion, destruction of social ties, extractivism of nature, and fetishization of the discourses of unity in the face of the pandemic. The hypothesis is that the pandemic offers an opportunity to rethink contemporary subjectivity, through a confrontation with the Real that borders on symbolization and, ultimately, ideological capture, in order to question the assertion that there is no alternative. © 2023 Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona and Universitat de Girona. All rights reserved.

Why the Pandemic Matters for Philosophy. Why Philosophy Matters for the Pandemic

Our common sense reaction to “pandemic and philosophy” is that we are in a medical emergency when we have to act decisively and not lose time in philo-sophical ruminations. But what if the tremendous impact of the pandemic on our economy, relations of domination, neocolonial divisions, and our mental health requires precisely a philosophical approach? To understand how the pandemic perturbed our ordinary daily lives, we need to reflect on what it means to be hu-man today, on the customs and rituals that make us “normal” human beings, on the need to invent new normality. The text deals with these basic questions through a critical overview of the existing literature on the current pandemic. © 2021, Discusiones Filosoficas. All Rights Reserved.

Deglobalize Covid-19: The pandemic from an off-center perspective

This article proposes a retrospective look at the last year following the World Health Organization’s declaration of Covid-19 as a pandemic, and seeks to reflect the wide diversity of its impact. In reviewing research from around the world, a panorama emerges showing the vast complexity of the phenomenon. This article reviews many of the analyses and debates that have been proposed from the framework of political philosophy, which are drawn almost exclusively from the European context. It shows that the suggested diagnoses, models and concepts can not be universally applied across geographies, such as Latin America, Asia or Africa. It therefore proposes to “deglobalize” the Covid-19 pandemic and invites the reader to consider it through another lens. © 2021, Universidade de Brasilia. All rights reserved.