In the Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO) of Harman and his colleagues, the human subject is redefined according to the pressures of a “flat ontology” that treats all objects equally. In opposition to OOO, Žižek upholds the pivotal role of the subject as theorized in the tradition of the German philosophers Immanuel Kant, G.W. Hegel and F.W.J.

Lecture 4 of the "First Principles of Philosophy" series. Recorded in 1963 at the Philosophical Research Society, Los Angeles.