Welcome to the 48th Special Issue of the SHAPE Journal, a collection of papers on Slavoj Žižek’s The Limits of Hegel from his book Less Than Nothing.

The introductory papers are important here, because without them the different stances of both Žižek and this critic would not be understood.

Jim Schofield, the author, feels that the various philosophic stances of both Holism and Plurality, and Hegelian Dialectics versus Marx’s Dialectical Materialism, would simply be confused by Žižek’s Limits of Hegel piece, either taken alone, or with a comprehensive criticism by Schofield.

The deterioration of Marxism has proceeded long- and-variously over the last century, to have left literally no-one with the wherewithal to “do a Marx” upon this “professed” Marxist, who casts a long Hegelian shadow over Dialectical Materialism.

A reasonable amount of ground must be attempted to be established, and a “quote-all-with-commentary” method of dealing with Žižek’s offering, along with three preparatory papers, constitute his attempt to deliver as much as possible.

“Why”, you may justifiably ask, “is this amount of effort necessary?”

It is because the World Working Class are entering the most dangerous period in almost a century, and are doing so without the real Marxist leadership it needs.