Abstract

This article represents an attempt at identifying a lack (of a lack) in analytic philosophy. It claims that one of the central features common to a variety of analytic philosophies is the absence of an investigation of what Jacques Lacan has identified as the lack of being ( manque à être ). This lacking lack is investigated through what could be termed a Lacanian intervention into one of the finest (relatively) recent products of the analytic tradition, Robert Brandom's Making It Explicit . The aim of the intervention is twofold: first, to identify some of the (maybe surprising) similarities between Brandom and the Lacanian tradition; second, to identify the lacking lack within analytic philosophy by focusing on what Brandom (`explicitly') does not say — and to argue that what is thus usually passed over in silence in the analytic tradition contains a perspective of fundamental significance to understanding humans and their societies. Key Words: analytic philosophy • Robert Brandom • drive • Jacques Lacan • lack • original accumulation • psychoanalysis • Slavoj Zizek.