Theoretical Writings

by Alain Badiou, Ray Brassier (Editor), Alberto Toscano (Editor)

Alain Badiou is arguably the most important and original philosopher working in France today. Swimming against the tide of postmodern orthodoxy, Badiou's work revitalizes philosophy's perennial attempt to provide a systematic theory of truth.

This volume presents for the first time in English a comprehensive overview of Badiou's ambitious system. Beginning with Badiou's controversial assertion that ontology is mathematics, this volume sets out his theory of the emergence of truths from the singular relationship between a subject and an event. Also included is a substantial extract from Badiou's forthcoming work on the logics of appearance and the concept of world, presented here in advance of its French publication.

Ranging from startling re-readings of canonical figures (Spinoza, Kant and Hegel) to decisive engagements with poetry, psychoanalysis and radical politics, Theoretical Writings is an indispensable introduction to one of the great thinkers of our time.

The volume also features a preface written by the author especially for this collection.

Genres: Philosophy, Theory, France

300 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Alain Badiou, Ph.D., born in Rabat, Morocco in 1937, holds the Rene Descartes Chair at the European Graduate School EGS. Alain Badiou was a student at the École Normale Supérieure in the 1950s. He taught at the University of Paris VIII (Vincennes-Saint Denis) from 1969 until 1999, when he returned to ENS as the Chair of the philosophy department. He continues to teach a popular seminar at the Collège International de Philosophie, on topics ranging from the great 'antiphilosophers' (Saint-Paul, Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, Lacan) to the major conceptual innovations of the twentieth century. Much of Badiou's life has been shaped by his dedication to the consequences of the May 1968 revolt in Paris. Long a leading member of Union des jeunesses communistes de France (marxistes-léninistes), he remains with Sylvain Lazarus and Natacha Michel at the center of L'Organisation Politique, a post-party organization concerned with direct popular intervention in a wide range of issues (including immigration, labor, and housing). He is the author of several successful novels and plays as well as more than a dozen philosophical works.

Trained as a mathematician, Alain Badiou is one of the most original French philosophers today. Influenced by Plato, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Jacques Lacan and Gilles Deleuze, he is an outspoken critic of both the analytic as well as the postmodern schools of thoughts. His philosophy seeks to expose and make sense of the potential of radical innovation (revolution, invention, transfiguration) in every situation.

Reviews

[Stephen · Rating 2 out of 5]

The low rating belongs to the philosopher, not the editors and translators who have brought this out and who have done a great service by it. Regardless of what I say, anyone thinking of reading Badiou should start here, as it gives an excellent overview of what his philosophical project is about.

I am appalled at myself that I have spent close to ten years trying to understand a thinker I loathe. At last I can articulate why. Whether it is mathematics, ontology or politics, Badiou, no matter how much he wishes to honor art, never even bothers to attempt it like we see Deleuze doing with his work; with his constant hectoring (albeit at an elevated level), everything about Badiou reads like journalism on the discipline. Strange, because this collection begins with his contempt held toward "the little style" of philosophers, those who cannot manage to think or write outside their field of specialization. Ordinarily I would say hooray for that, but then he proceeds to say some of the most obnoxious things I have ever read by a philosopher since Kant stated at the beginning of his Critiques "I have solved all the major problems of existence."

Badiou's project is this: superstitions, humanity, we cannot have any more of that; if you wish to be clear-headed about the world go atheist; Wittgenstein was a sneaky devil, avoid him; behind every secularist who insists we are mortal is a closet Christian, Jew or Muslim; Mao is not so bad if we think of him in terms of theorems. All in all, metaphysics is for the sentimental. He actually makes no bones about his aristocratic pretensions: if you cannot base your propositions on higher-end mathematics you are swinging in the dark. At one point he says, examples, who are you to ask me for examples. If you want examples read Meditation 7 of my profoundly experiential Being & Event. If you cannot get through that then you are a lazy reader, beneath the realm of Plato of whom I am in league.

Why aim for mathematics? Because it is thinking at the level of infinity, that thing which kicks humanity around. Well why not shoot for eternity except when he talks about Thermidor he sounds like an amateur when compared to a real historian of the French Revolution like Furet; when he discusses Mallarmé's "roll of the dice" he takes the poet literally when Mallarmé analogizes about mathematics. Chance for the poet, actually, is about choosing the right words and rhythms in a world of unbelievable abundance. In other words, for someone who claims he has a latch on eternity, he does not sound like a god so much as someone who has read extensively in the secondary literature.

Ordinarily I do not like doing this, but of the 120 or so names listed in the Index I counted fewer than ten women (and some like M. Duras only in passing). If there were more of them Badiou would have no choice but to place a greater premium on finitude and belief, two things women have traditionally excelled at.

[Slow Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

worth it for the theoretical writings not found in the larger tomes. superb of course

[Leonardo]

Badiou –como materialista dialéctico– es consciente del peligro idealista que acecha en la aseveración de la irreductibilidad del Acontecimiento al orden del Ser: Tenemos que señalar que, por lo que respecta a su materia, el acontecimiento no es un milagro. Lo que quiero decir es que lo que compone cualquier acontecimiento está siempre extraído de una situación, está siempre relacionado con una singular multiplicidad, con su estado, con el lenguaje que está conectado con él, etc. De hecho, para no sucumbir a una oscurantista teoría de la creación ex nihilo, tenemos que aceptar que un acontecimiento no es otra cosa que una parte de una situación dada, no es otra cosa que un fragmento del ser. Las consecuencias de esta clara declaración no están menos claras: no hay ningún Más Allá respecto al Ser, que se inscriba a sí mismo en el orden del Ser; no hay nada excepto el orden del Ser. ¿Cómo podemos interpretar esta absoluta inmanencia del Acontecimiento con el Ser, junto a la aseveración de su radical heterogeneidad? La única manera de resolver este punto muerto es aceptar que la línea que los distingue no es una línea que separa dos órdenes positivos: dentro del orden del Ser, nunca alcanzaremos una frontera más allá de la cual empiece un diferente orden del Acontecimiento. Por eso no hay ninguna manera –pero tampoco ninguna necesidad– de sustraernos a nosotros mismos por completo del «corrupto» orden del Estado: lo que tenemos que hacer es introducir una torsión suplementaria en él, inscribir en él nuestra fidelidad a un Acontecimiento. De esta manera permanecemos dentro del Estado, pero hacemos que el Estado funcione de una manera no estatal (de una manera similar, por ejemplo, al modo en que la poesía, que tiene lugar en el lenguaje, lo gira y lo vuelve contra sí mismo, haciendo que así diga la verdad). Entonces no hay ninguna necesidad de interpretar al asceta gnóstico y retirarse de la caída realidad al aislado espacio de la Verdad: aunque sea heterogénea respecto a la realidad, la Verdad puede aparecer en cualquier lugar dentro de ella.

Viviendo en el Final de los Tiempos Pág.213

[CR · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure if there's any need to read this book. Given how frequently he cites his big works, you might as well just read them: "Being and Event" and "The Logic of Worlds".

This book would probably be only useful for someone who needs to reference Badiou's own summaries of some of his particular stances, named by the titles of the essays that constitute this book.

[Joe Spencer · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of different papers, but immensely helpful.