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La vraie vie : Appel à la corruption de la jeunesse
« La toute première réception officielle de la philosophie, avec Socrate, prend la forme d’une très grave accusation : le philosophe corrompt la jeunesse. Alors, si j’adopte ce point de vue, je dirai assez simplement : je viens corrompre la jeunesse en parlant de ce que la vie peut offrir, des raisons pour lesquelles il faut absolument changer le monde et qui, pour cela même, imposent de prendre des risques.
Aujourd’hui, parce qu’elle en a la liberté, la possibilité, la jeunesse n’est plus ligotée par la tradition. Mais que faire de cette liberté, de cette nouvelle errance ? Filles et garçons doivent découvrir leur propre capacité quant à une vraie vie, une pensée intense qui affirme le monde nouveau qu’ils entendent créer.
Que vivent nos filles et nos fils ! »
A. B.
Aujourd’hui, parce qu’elle en a la liberté, la possibilité, la jeunesse n’est plus ligotée par la tradition. Mais que faire de cette liberté, de cette nouvelle errance ? Filles et garçons doivent découvrir leur propre capacité quant à une vraie vie, une pensée intense qui affirme le monde nouveau qu’ils entendent créer.
Que vivent nos filles et nos fils ! »
A. B.
128 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 19, 2016
39 people are currently reading
679 people want to read
About the author
Alain Badiou
368 books1,015 followersAlain 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 64 reviews
April 1, 2017
Alain Badiou, the octogenarian, Maoist and self-proclaimed neo-Platonist, is simply a joy to read in these small outbursts of lucid writing and reflection. These series of small books translated into English (another one I’ve read is Black: The Brilliance of a non-color) is highly recommended anyone who is interested. This is the TL;DR version.
Badiou starts the book humorously by mentioning Socrates who is condemned to death because of the “corruption of the youth”. As an old man who is about to become 80, he definitely takes up the duty. There is a great procession of ideas here: Badiou recognizes how old people tries to teach “life lessons” to young people and they are usually full of regrets and goes on to talk about Rimbaud from whom the expression “the true life” originated. Then, a poem by Rimbaud comes up in which he talks to his 17-year-old self full of regret and longing. When he was 20-year-old. So, there is Rimbaud standing in between two choices that the young people faces according to Badiou: instant gratification (hedonism) and that which “conservative and structural life” (career-building) both of which Rimbaud experienced before he was 20.
Of course, Badiou is for neither of them and he claims that the youth needs a “well-conceived and highly effective plan” which sounds a lot like famous Badiou adage, “those who have nothing to lose has only their discipline”. When he proposes an alliance of under 30s and over 60s (old radicals that he is a member), it is possible that he has the adage in mind: the young people whose future is stolen from them, locked in a perpetual state of adolescence and old radicals who lost once but has their discipline.
His two-part treatise on boys and girls is fascinating as it makes use of psychoanalysis in incredible clarity (one should always applaud such an effort of making psychoanalysis intelligible). Badiou writes a fast-paced “Totem and Taboo for the 21st Century” on boys which explains the perpetual adolescence of boys in contemporary times. This is because we are lacking the initiation rites of the old symbolic order (alongside other reasons) for Badiou that usually includes military service, marriage and employment for boys. But nowadays the symbolic order is eroding and “boys will be boys” who are very much into “toys” that consumerist culture provides to them.
The last part on girls is probably the most interesting part in the book because of a number of reasons. First, he uses the classical principle of Maoism (that Badiou very frequently deploys in other works) “One Divides into Two” to explain the girls’ situation. His move here is pretty pleasant to read. After a thorough discussion, he raises two concern: women taking over boys whose most ridiculous form would be career women controlling the ever-adolescent men. He claims that this is possible under a “bourgeois, authoritarian form of feminism” which we already have traces of. We need to be aware of the fact that there is a danger of women becoming “reserve army of capitalism” (in the case of me and the other boys continue to act like we are still 16 years old for the next 20 years), he claims (no, I claim the last part of course, but still) and I tend to agree.
The other concern of Badiou’s that ends the book was the bourgeois feminism’s hostility towards child-bearing. While child-bearing is seen as a remnant of “woman, the Servant”, Badiou argues that the servile mode could be overcome by the new symbolic order that is co-created by men and women. It was just a different experience that one of the leading philosophers in the world is really worried about humankind’s extinction because of bourgeois feminism’s hostility towards child-bearing for half a page quoting Kantian ethics.
All in all, 5 stars.
Badiou starts the book humorously by mentioning Socrates who is condemned to death because of the “corruption of the youth”. As an old man who is about to become 80, he definitely takes up the duty. There is a great procession of ideas here: Badiou recognizes how old people tries to teach “life lessons” to young people and they are usually full of regrets and goes on to talk about Rimbaud from whom the expression “the true life” originated. Then, a poem by Rimbaud comes up in which he talks to his 17-year-old self full of regret and longing. When he was 20-year-old. So, there is Rimbaud standing in between two choices that the young people faces according to Badiou: instant gratification (hedonism) and that which “conservative and structural life” (career-building) both of which Rimbaud experienced before he was 20.
Of course, Badiou is for neither of them and he claims that the youth needs a “well-conceived and highly effective plan” which sounds a lot like famous Badiou adage, “those who have nothing to lose has only their discipline”. When he proposes an alliance of under 30s and over 60s (old radicals that he is a member), it is possible that he has the adage in mind: the young people whose future is stolen from them, locked in a perpetual state of adolescence and old radicals who lost once but has their discipline.
His two-part treatise on boys and girls is fascinating as it makes use of psychoanalysis in incredible clarity (one should always applaud such an effort of making psychoanalysis intelligible). Badiou writes a fast-paced “Totem and Taboo for the 21st Century” on boys which explains the perpetual adolescence of boys in contemporary times. This is because we are lacking the initiation rites of the old symbolic order (alongside other reasons) for Badiou that usually includes military service, marriage and employment for boys. But nowadays the symbolic order is eroding and “boys will be boys” who are very much into “toys” that consumerist culture provides to them.
The last part on girls is probably the most interesting part in the book because of a number of reasons. First, he uses the classical principle of Maoism (that Badiou very frequently deploys in other works) “One Divides into Two” to explain the girls’ situation. His move here is pretty pleasant to read. After a thorough discussion, he raises two concern: women taking over boys whose most ridiculous form would be career women controlling the ever-adolescent men. He claims that this is possible under a “bourgeois, authoritarian form of feminism” which we already have traces of. We need to be aware of the fact that there is a danger of women becoming “reserve army of capitalism” (in the case of me and the other boys continue to act like we are still 16 years old for the next 20 years), he claims (no, I claim the last part of course, but still) and I tend to agree.
The other concern of Badiou’s that ends the book was the bourgeois feminism’s hostility towards child-bearing. While child-bearing is seen as a remnant of “woman, the Servant”, Badiou argues that the servile mode could be overcome by the new symbolic order that is co-created by men and women. It was just a different experience that one of the leading philosophers in the world is really worried about humankind’s extinction because of bourgeois feminism’s hostility towards child-bearing for half a page quoting Kantian ethics.
All in all, 5 stars.
January 28, 2019
Wat een meesterlijke worp! Het begint goed, maar redelijk conventioneel, met een oproep aan de jongeren om in deze complexe wereld, waarin de laatste resten van de traditie worden geslecht, niet toe te geven aan de consumentistische en carrieristische sirenenzang van het laatkapitalisme. Aan jonge mensen wordt de raad gegeven om de ambigue vrijheid die ze vandaag genieten in te zetten als hefboom voor het ‘ware leven’. Voor Badiou ligt er een ethisch appel in het ontwikkelen, from scratch, van een ‘egalitaire symbolisering’; een experiment van ongewone omvang omdat alle sociale symboliseringen tot nog toe hiërarchisch waren. In de twee hoofdstukken die er op volgen - het eerste gewijd aan de jongens van vandaag, het tweede aan de meisjes - schakelt de filosoof naar een hogere versnelling. Ze verbluffen door de diepte van de inzichten die erin gepresenteerd worden en de elegantie van de redeneertrant. Voor diegenen die gepokt en gemazeld zijn in Lacaniaanse psychoanalyse, is er misschien niet zoveel nieuws te rapen, maar ik vond de duiding van de positie van respectievelijk de jonge man en de jonge vrouw van vandaag uitermate sprekend en verhelderend. “De zonen zijn ertoe veroordeeld nooit de volwassenen te worden die ze in zich hebben. De dochters zijn ertoe veroordeeld altijd al de volwassen vrouwen te zijn die ze op een actieve manier hadden moeten worden.” Ik ga het hier bij houden. Er zitten veel meer verrassende perspectieven in deze twee essays, die overigens ook voor oudere mensen van veel nut kunnen zijn.
January 11, 2018
Update later with review!
March 28, 2022
Le daría un 3.5 si pudiera. Badiou intenta dar paso a un debate o una construcción de la filosofía y política de los jóvenes de manera más o menos eficaz. La introducción está bien como presentación del problema aunque es un poco superficial. La segunda parte, sobre los chicos, es la peor, pero contiene puntos interesantes sobre la subjetividad masculina y el efecto del capital en esta. La tercera parte es la mejor y trata sobre la posición femenina tomando a lacan con una perspectiva propia.
Da importancia a la creación simbólica en la lucha contra la Ley del capital y ofrece breves apuntes sobre la dirección que tomar. El mayor defecto es su brevedad, seguido del hecho de que badiou escribe, como muchos otros inspirados en la diferencia psicoanálitica, al borde de ser esencialista y excluyente de cualquier disidencia.
Da importancia a la creación simbólica en la lucha contra la Ley del capital y ofrece breves apuntes sobre la dirección que tomar. El mayor defecto es su brevedad, seguido del hecho de que badiou escribe, como muchos otros inspirados en la diferencia psicoanálitica, al borde de ser esencialista y excluyente de cualquier disidencia.
October 7, 2019
[EDITED]
I love the conceit of this book, but the execution falters as it goes along. Book versions of speeches that Badiou has been delivering to the young around France? Helping them to think about how to imagine a new, different, better future than this dismal present? I love that idea.
And it starts strong. The first chapter, which is the first half of the book, is great. Very accessible, readable, perceptive about the ways that our current situation is distorted and unjust and with some important insights about how we might move forward. I'm not even necessarily opposed to the idea of using the second and third chapters to address Boys, then Girls (though there could have been fruitful additional work beyond that (false) binary -- though in fairness to AB, he's here responding to a World System that still does all it can to funnel all children into those two (cis) categories, and you see in his analysis that the different world he is encouraging the youth to imagine/build does indeed open up space to avoid those old binaries). But as he moves into the latter chapters/speeches, his commitment to brevity does not combine well with his use of more technical language. Now, maybe in France there's some undercurrent of Lacanian thinking that renders phrases like "Name-of-the-Father" legible even to high school students... but I guess I doubt it? There's still some good stuff in those last two chapters, but the brevity also works against the overarching argument. Where in the first chapter we get a good diagnosis, the prescriptions for treatment in these latter two chapters seem like only a first draft. AB is at least open about this. He is suggesting some ideas, but he's also (and this is to his credit) putting the burden on these youth. He emphasizes his own limitations and talks about the differences between the society in which he grew up and the society they inhabit now. (This also provides a good window on the fact that it is not the case that EVERYTHING IS WORSE, which I feel like is sometimes the lazy dismissal of reactionary thinkers for the more egalitarian thinkers.)
[EDITED TO ADD THIS:] Though I'm not sure it's unique to him, I did find provocative the ideas, teased out in the last two chapters, that the breakdown of initiation rituals under Late Capital has had the twin effect of trapping boys as boys, in a perpetual adolescence that serves capital by their devotion to acquisition of more and more toys forever, and the flip-side, which is that girls are rendered as girl-woman from the start, already freighted with the responsibilities of even before they have crossed into the age where historically they would have been more formally transitioned to adulthood. (Badiou, to his credit, carries out this analysis without ever glorifying or calling for a return to the old and outmoded forms of initiation and ways-of-being.) But this analysis was presented in a way that was really only a gesture at a beginning. It strikes me as a possible fruitful beginning (and, again, could be made even more fruitful by fully engaging beyond these old binaries and their supposed fixedness) but is only a beginning here. He passes this task along to the youth, which again is a gesture I actually appreciate. [END ADDITIONAL MATERIAL.]
Worth a look, and it's a quick read, but it's unfortunate that a book that made me think, for its first half, "I'm going to buy copies of this and give it to some young people I know!" had mostly dissipated that impulse in me by the end. I may still give away a few copies, but they might also come with the comment, "You can get away with just reading the first chapter. If you read the rest... well, let's use it to start a conversation."
I love the conceit of this book, but the execution falters as it goes along. Book versions of speeches that Badiou has been delivering to the young around France? Helping them to think about how to imagine a new, different, better future than this dismal present? I love that idea.
And it starts strong. The first chapter, which is the first half of the book, is great. Very accessible, readable, perceptive about the ways that our current situation is distorted and unjust and with some important insights about how we might move forward. I'm not even necessarily opposed to the idea of using the second and third chapters to address Boys, then Girls (though there could have been fruitful additional work beyond that (false) binary -- though in fairness to AB, he's here responding to a World System that still does all it can to funnel all children into those two (cis) categories, and you see in his analysis that the different world he is encouraging the youth to imagine/build does indeed open up space to avoid those old binaries). But as he moves into the latter chapters/speeches, his commitment to brevity does not combine well with his use of more technical language. Now, maybe in France there's some undercurrent of Lacanian thinking that renders phrases like "Name-of-the-Father" legible even to high school students... but I guess I doubt it? There's still some good stuff in those last two chapters, but the brevity also works against the overarching argument. Where in the first chapter we get a good diagnosis, the prescriptions for treatment in these latter two chapters seem like only a first draft. AB is at least open about this. He is suggesting some ideas, but he's also (and this is to his credit) putting the burden on these youth. He emphasizes his own limitations and talks about the differences between the society in which he grew up and the society they inhabit now. (This also provides a good window on the fact that it is not the case that EVERYTHING IS WORSE, which I feel like is sometimes the lazy dismissal of reactionary thinkers for the more egalitarian thinkers.)
[EDITED TO ADD THIS:] Though I'm not sure it's unique to him, I did find provocative the ideas, teased out in the last two chapters, that the breakdown of initiation rituals under Late Capital has had the twin effect of trapping boys as boys, in a perpetual adolescence that serves capital by their devotion to acquisition of more and more toys forever, and the flip-side, which is that girls are rendered as girl-woman from the start, already freighted with the responsibilities of even before they have crossed into the age where historically they would have been more formally transitioned to adulthood. (Badiou, to his credit, carries out this analysis without ever glorifying or calling for a return to the old and outmoded forms of initiation and ways-of-being.) But this analysis was presented in a way that was really only a gesture at a beginning. It strikes me as a possible fruitful beginning (and, again, could be made even more fruitful by fully engaging beyond these old binaries and their supposed fixedness) but is only a beginning here. He passes this task along to the youth, which again is a gesture I actually appreciate. [END ADDITIONAL MATERIAL.]
Worth a look, and it's a quick read, but it's unfortunate that a book that made me think, for its first half, "I'm going to buy copies of this and give it to some young people I know!" had mostly dissipated that impulse in me by the end. I may still give away a few copies, but they might also come with the comment, "You can get away with just reading the first chapter. If you read the rest... well, let's use it to start a conversation."
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January 21, 2019Kitap hakkında uzun bir yazı yazmıştım ama Goodreads'in azizliğine uğradım, kaybettim yazıyı, aklımda kaldığı haliyle tekrar yazmaya çalışacağım.
Genelde felsefe kitaplarını Türkçe okumuyorum çünkü 1) bu alanda yaptığım okumaların çoğu İngilizce ve 2) bazı temel eserleri saymazsak kaliteli çeviri bulmak kolay değil. Ne var ki, Gerçek Yaşam'ı kitapçıda görüp arka kapağını da okuyunca çok merak ettim çünkü hem kitap kısaydı, hem de çevirmenini önceden biliyor ve kaliteli işler yaptığından haberdardım. Bunlara ek olarak, Fransız yazarların (özellikle sosyal bilimcilerin ve filozofların) Fransız kontekstinin dışındaki insanlarca okunduğunda pek kolay anlaşılamadığı malum. Bu sebeple, Fransız bir yazarın, özellikle yurtdışında bir yerde, söz gelimi ABD'de bir üniversitede verdiği söyleşileri, yaptığı konuşmaları okumak epey rahat oluyor (aklıma gelen ilk örnek Pierre Bourdieu'nün Lois Wacquant'la beraber verdiği konferanslardan oluşan An Invitation to a Reflexive Sociology kitabı). Gerçek Yaşam da Alain Badiou'nün Fransa'da ve başka ülkelerde çeşitli okullarda verdiği konferanslardan oluşuyor.
Bu faktörlerin hepsini birleştirince kitabı satın aldım ve gün içinde okuyup bitirdim. Öncelikle, kitabın aşağı yukarı yarısını da kaplayan ilk bölümünün, yani "Günümüzde Genç Olmak: Anlam ve Anlamsızlığın" başlıklı kısmın güçlü, özellikle son sayfalarını düşünürsek amacına ("baştan çıkarmak") uygun ve gayet açık seçik, anlaşılır olduğunu söyleyeyim. Söz konusu bölümü okurken birçok yerin altını çizdim ve her tespitine katılmasam da, kafa açıcı bulduğum bir yazı oldu.
Gel gör ki, "Oğlan Çocuklarının Çağdaş Yazgısına Dair" ve "Kızların Çağdaş Yazgısı Hakkında" başlıklı ikinci ve üçüncü bölümlere geçince işin rengi bir anda değişiyor, Badiou alana hakim ya da alışık olmayanların anlamakta zorluk çekeceği ve okurken zorlanacağı yoğun Freudyen ve yer yer Lacanyen psikanalitik bir dil kullanmaya başlıyor (ki bu konuşmalar bazı "liselerde" yapılmış, zaten burada nispeten yüzeysel bir analiz sunarken, bunu büyük psikanalitik kavramlarla yapmaya çalışmasını yanlış buldum ben). "Gençlere yol göstermek" iddiasıyla yola çıkıp, "oğlanlar ve kızlar" ikililiğinin dışına çıkmaması ve bunun ötesi hakkında pek bir kelam etmemesi de cabası. Badiou'nün fikirlerine çok hakim olmadığım için (kendisine neo-Platonist demesi ve Maoist olması dışında, ki ikisine de pek yakın olduğum söylenemez, bu sebeple zaten uzun süredir okuyasım gelmiyordu kendisini) bu eleştiriyi daha da ileriye taşımayacağım ancak hoşuma gitmediğini belirteyim.
Sonuç olarak, güçlü başlayıp zayıf biten bir kitap olmuş. Herkese kitabın ilk bölümünü okumasını öneririm, psikanaliz geleneğine az çok aşina olanlar diğer bölümleri de zevkle okurlar belki, ben okuyamadım ama.
Genelde felsefe kitaplarını Türkçe okumuyorum çünkü 1) bu alanda yaptığım okumaların çoğu İngilizce ve 2) bazı temel eserleri saymazsak kaliteli çeviri bulmak kolay değil. Ne var ki, Gerçek Yaşam'ı kitapçıda görüp arka kapağını da okuyunca çok merak ettim çünkü hem kitap kısaydı, hem de çevirmenini önceden biliyor ve kaliteli işler yaptığından haberdardım. Bunlara ek olarak, Fransız yazarların (özellikle sosyal bilimcilerin ve filozofların) Fransız kontekstinin dışındaki insanlarca okunduğunda pek kolay anlaşılamadığı malum. Bu sebeple, Fransız bir yazarın, özellikle yurtdışında bir yerde, söz gelimi ABD'de bir üniversitede verdiği söyleşileri, yaptığı konuşmaları okumak epey rahat oluyor (aklıma gelen ilk örnek Pierre Bourdieu'nün Lois Wacquant'la beraber verdiği konferanslardan oluşan An Invitation to a Reflexive Sociology kitabı). Gerçek Yaşam da Alain Badiou'nün Fransa'da ve başka ülkelerde çeşitli okullarda verdiği konferanslardan oluşuyor.
Bu faktörlerin hepsini birleştirince kitabı satın aldım ve gün içinde okuyup bitirdim. Öncelikle, kitabın aşağı yukarı yarısını da kaplayan ilk bölümünün, yani "Günümüzde Genç Olmak: Anlam ve Anlamsızlığın" başlıklı kısmın güçlü, özellikle son sayfalarını düşünürsek amacına ("baştan çıkarmak") uygun ve gayet açık seçik, anlaşılır olduğunu söyleyeyim. Söz konusu bölümü okurken birçok yerin altını çizdim ve her tespitine katılmasam da, kafa açıcı bulduğum bir yazı oldu.
Gel gör ki, "Oğlan Çocuklarının Çağdaş Yazgısına Dair" ve "Kızların Çağdaş Yazgısı Hakkında" başlıklı ikinci ve üçüncü bölümlere geçince işin rengi bir anda değişiyor, Badiou alana hakim ya da alışık olmayanların anlamakta zorluk çekeceği ve okurken zorlanacağı yoğun Freudyen ve yer yer Lacanyen psikanalitik bir dil kullanmaya başlıyor (ki bu konuşmalar bazı "liselerde" yapılmış, zaten burada nispeten yüzeysel bir analiz sunarken, bunu büyük psikanalitik kavramlarla yapmaya çalışmasını yanlış buldum ben). "Gençlere yol göstermek" iddiasıyla yola çıkıp, "oğlanlar ve kızlar" ikililiğinin dışına çıkmaması ve bunun ötesi hakkında pek bir kelam etmemesi de cabası. Badiou'nün fikirlerine çok hakim olmadığım için (kendisine neo-Platonist demesi ve Maoist olması dışında, ki ikisine de pek yakın olduğum söylenemez, bu sebeple zaten uzun süredir okuyasım gelmiyordu kendisini) bu eleştiriyi daha da ileriye taşımayacağım ancak hoşuma gitmediğini belirteyim.
Sonuç olarak, güçlü başlayıp zayıf biten bir kitap olmuş. Herkese kitabın ilk bölümünü okumasını öneririm, psikanaliz geleneğine az çok aşina olanlar diğer bölümleri de zevkle okurlar belki, ben okuyamadım ama.
January 12, 2020
This is a strange bird. It's just an odd duck in a number of ways. First, it claims -- as the second and third sections respectively -- to be delivered to and for boys and girls. Despite Badiou's claims, it is clearly not for boys and girls. The material Badiou covers and the logic he uses are far, far too advanced for actual kids. He is using Freud as his point of departure in one chapter, he is using Lacanian structuralist analysis in two of the chapters, and he is doing all of this in service of discussing power relations and gender roles in society. Perfect material and presentation for your typical K-5 child. Second, his neo-Platonism just feels forced. The One, the Two, the real father, the symbolic father, the perverted body, the sacrificed body. You can't make this stuff up. It's like he is imposing false categories on top of reality and trying to cram reality up into these categories. And it just feels like unnecessary artifice. In the end, it's a shame. There is solid grounded substance to the points Badiou is making. The problem is that his arguments get jumbled up in his neo-Platonic Lacanian artifice.
November 26, 2021
I should not have tried reading this book, short though it is, at a time when I was overloaded with work and feeling rather drained. Alain Badiou's ideas sometimes made sense to me, and when they did, I found myself nodding, interested, or at least opening my eyes wide and wondering why I'd never thought of that angle before (easy; I'm no philosopher). The rest of the time, I was finding myself re-reading sections just in order to try and get a grasp on what he was trying to say. And invariably, failing.
Someday, perhaps, I will return to this book to understand Badiou's philosophy of the true life as it is (or should be) for young people, for boys and girls. Who knows, by then, the New Girl he envisages will have been created.
Someday, perhaps, I will return to this book to understand Badiou's philosophy of the true life as it is (or should be) for young people, for boys and girls. Who knows, by then, the New Girl he envisages will have been created.
September 12, 2019
ma kako ovaj čovek piše pa mu nema ravnog. volim kad filozofi pišu jednostavno, ne neke teške reči pa ih pola sveta ne razume nego samo jednostavno. to je najveći plus a onda poseban plus za sam sadržaj. ja sa počinjala sa čitanjem još zimus ali nikako mi se tad nije čitao izgleda i sad sam ponovo uzela i za dan pročitala koliko mi se svidelo i izdvojila sam i neke posebne delove koji mi se dopadaju i sa kojima se slažem. badju zna da treba da živimo nomadskim životom i trebalo mi je ovo u trenutku kad posustajem od učenja, da mi kaze da karijera i dobar posao nikako ne treba da mi budu top priority ❤️
May 30, 2017
This book puts forth some rather ridiculous ideas. I'll admit it's been a good decade since I last read Badiou, but I don't remember his work being this out of touch or poorly written. The basic premise concerns a series of lectures Badiou gave that are oriented towards 'the youth.' While recognizing the potential absurdity of an 80 year old philosopher lecturing young folk on political participation; he also simultaneously manages to misunderstand or misrepresent so many aspects of 'youth culture' as he identifies it. This is also ignoring that he spends a large portion of the introduction lamenting about Socrates' trial over 'corruption of the youth.' His primary takeaway from talking about (Plato's depiction of) Socrates is the he, too, seeks to be a corrupter of youth as a Philosopher-King. Almost completely untouched upon is the history and social context for that trial, or /why/ Socrates was tried and convicted.
Many of his sweeping generalizations and proofs are either poorly supported or simply factually inaccurate. One claim that is central to his argument is that there are no longer rituals to mark entry into adulthood because mandatory military service is gone. What a culturally myopic assumption. The bar/bat mitzvah, the Quinceañera, age limits on activities like driving and drinking, school graduations. All of these things persist to mark entry into adulthood. Not to mention there are countries where mandatory national and/or military service still exists (or never existed in the first place). And there were so many instances of the examples Badiou chose to use simply not supporting his argument. At one point, when discussing why he assumed Occupy Wall Street failed as a movement; he asserted it was because a) all of the participants were middle class b) they never made any effort to make alliances with the working poor. Then literally on the next page of the book, when trying to illustrate 'good' examples of this type of alliance, he cites chapters of the Occupy moment working together with local labor groups (like Occupy Oakland protesting in solidarity with the dockworkers at the Port of Oakland).
And none of this even touches on the absurdity of the fact that the last two chapters are divided into 'boys' and 'girls' concerns. (did you know that Feminism as project has only ever had one issue? According to Badiou it's women's independence from men! Who knew.)
Many of his sweeping generalizations and proofs are either poorly supported or simply factually inaccurate. One claim that is central to his argument is that there are no longer rituals to mark entry into adulthood because mandatory military service is gone. What a culturally myopic assumption. The bar/bat mitzvah, the Quinceañera, age limits on activities like driving and drinking, school graduations. All of these things persist to mark entry into adulthood. Not to mention there are countries where mandatory national and/or military service still exists (or never existed in the first place). And there were so many instances of the examples Badiou chose to use simply not supporting his argument. At one point, when discussing why he assumed Occupy Wall Street failed as a movement; he asserted it was because a) all of the participants were middle class b) they never made any effort to make alliances with the working poor. Then literally on the next page of the book, when trying to illustrate 'good' examples of this type of alliance, he cites chapters of the Occupy moment working together with local labor groups (like Occupy Oakland protesting in solidarity with the dockworkers at the Port of Oakland).
And none of this even touches on the absurdity of the fact that the last two chapters are divided into 'boys' and 'girls' concerns. (did you know that Feminism as project has only ever had one issue? According to Badiou it's women's independence from men! Who knew.)
July 13, 2025
زندگی حقیقی، فراخوانی برای فاسد کردن جوانان.
انتشارات شوند.
انتشارات شوند.
October 26, 2018
اصل جنس.
July 15, 2020
The ideas in this book are really fascinating! A made a summary of a book on 13 pages for myself.
The author has strengthen my purpose in reading philosophy and thinking. And reflecting on living a life as a philosopher: being a lover, an artist, a political activist, need to have passion for science and thinking and be always ready to question myself. I don't need to live a life 'in one day' nor 'live for tomorrow'. There is a third path called 'the true life': a compass in capitalism in respect to universal.
The author has strengthen my purpose in reading philosophy and thinking. And reflecting on living a life as a philosopher: being a lover, an artist, a political activist, need to have passion for science and thinking and be always ready to question myself. I don't need to live a life 'in one day' nor 'live for tomorrow'. There is a third path called 'the true life': a compass in capitalism in respect to universal.
November 18, 2017
Está dividido en tres partes, me gustó mucho la primera que era el mensaje a los jóvenes. Las siguientes eran una hacia los muchachos y otra dedicada a las muchachas, no me gustaron tanto.
July 12, 2024
"Felsefenin konusu gerçek yaşamdır. Peki, gerçek yaşam nedir? Filozofun biricik sorusu budur. Dolayısıyla, 'gençliği yoldan çıkarmak' diye bir şey söz konusuysa, bu asla paranın, hazzın ya da iktidarın hatırına değildir, gençliğe bütün bunlardan daha üstün, daha iyi bir şeylerin var olduğunu göstermek içindir: Gerçek yaşam. Zahmete değen bir şey, yaşama çabasına değen ve parayı, hazları, iktidarı çok çok gerilerde bırakan bir şey."
"Sürekli sayılarla düşünmeliyiz. Günümüzde dünya nüfusunun %10'u mevcut sermayenin %86'sını elinde bulunduruyor. Bu sermayenin de %46'sını %1 elinde tutuyor. Dünya nüfusunun %50'si kesinlikle hiçbir şeye sahip değil, yüzde sıfır. Neredeyse her şeye sahip olan %10'un, hiçbir şeyi olmayanlarla, hatta kendilerinden geriye kalan %14'ü paylaşanların en şanssızlarıyla bile asla bir araya gelmemeyi neden diledikleri rahatlıkla anlaşılacaktır. Diğer yandan, bu %14'ü paylaşanların büyük bölümü büyük olasılıkla pasif gücenme ile sahip oldukları şeyi vahşice koruma arzusu arasında bölünmüşlerdir; özellikle de korkunç bir "tehdit" olarak gördükleri hiçbir şeyi olmayan %50'ye yönelik sayısız baskıcı engele ırkçılığın ve milliyetçıliğin de yardımıyla destek vermektedirler."
"Pazarın ışıltısı karşısında duran biri halini almak, bireyin adım adım gerçekleşen evrensel ıslahının sonucudur. En önemli toplumsal buyruk, her gerçek bireyselliğin meta dolaşımına bağlı olmasını sağlamak, eğer bu bireysellik özneleştirilecekse, geniş ticari meta yığınıyla yüzleşmeyi ve bu nesneleri dolaşıma sokma gücüne -az çok- sahip olmayı motive eden bir özneleşme olmalıdır. Tam da bu nedenle, sadece satın alması ve uslu durması istenen bu kişinin olabileceği özne olması adım adım engellenir."
"İdeasız, yönelimsiz kalmış birey, ancak aşk, siyaset ve sanat-bilim üçlüsüyle yeni ve yaratıcı gerçek yaşamlar kurabilir."
"Sürekli sayılarla düşünmeliyiz. Günümüzde dünya nüfusunun %10'u mevcut sermayenin %86'sını elinde bulunduruyor. Bu sermayenin de %46'sını %1 elinde tutuyor. Dünya nüfusunun %50'si kesinlikle hiçbir şeye sahip değil, yüzde sıfır. Neredeyse her şeye sahip olan %10'un, hiçbir şeyi olmayanlarla, hatta kendilerinden geriye kalan %14'ü paylaşanların en şanssızlarıyla bile asla bir araya gelmemeyi neden diledikleri rahatlıkla anlaşılacaktır. Diğer yandan, bu %14'ü paylaşanların büyük bölümü büyük olasılıkla pasif gücenme ile sahip oldukları şeyi vahşice koruma arzusu arasında bölünmüşlerdir; özellikle de korkunç bir "tehdit" olarak gördükleri hiçbir şeyi olmayan %50'ye yönelik sayısız baskıcı engele ırkçılığın ve milliyetçıliğin de yardımıyla destek vermektedirler."
"Pazarın ışıltısı karşısında duran biri halini almak, bireyin adım adım gerçekleşen evrensel ıslahının sonucudur. En önemli toplumsal buyruk, her gerçek bireyselliğin meta dolaşımına bağlı olmasını sağlamak, eğer bu bireysellik özneleştirilecekse, geniş ticari meta yığınıyla yüzleşmeyi ve bu nesneleri dolaşıma sokma gücüne -az çok- sahip olmayı motive eden bir özneleşme olmalıdır. Tam da bu nedenle, sadece satın alması ve uslu durması istenen bu kişinin olabileceği özne olması adım adım engellenir."
"İdeasız, yönelimsiz kalmış birey, ancak aşk, siyaset ve sanat-bilim üçlüsüyle yeni ve yaratıcı gerçek yaşamlar kurabilir."
January 16, 2024
سخنرانی کوتاه درباب جوان بودن.
بدیو ایده ساده و بدیعی را در این سخنرانی (کتاب)مطرح میکند. این که امروزه به دلیل تشرف زدایی از مراسم بزرگسالی برای پسران ((مثلا حذف سربازی اجباری و ...) دیگر با زندگی مردانه یا نسل مردان مواجه نیستیم. البته این تنها ساده شده و خلاصه ایده بدیو است. او میگوید امروز دیگر مردانگی یافت نمی شود بلکه پسرانگی تمدید شده است. از سوی دیگر، امروز دیگر دخترانگی هم یافت نمیشود؛ هرچه هست زنانگی بسط یافته است. دختران از سنین پایین زنانگی را تمرین میکنند و ...
بدیو ایده ساده و بدیعی را در این سخنرانی (کتاب)مطرح میکند. این که امروزه به دلیل تشرف زدایی از مراسم بزرگسالی برای پسران ((مثلا حذف سربازی اجباری و ...) دیگر با زندگی مردانه یا نسل مردان مواجه نیستیم. البته این تنها ساده شده و خلاصه ایده بدیو است. او میگوید امروز دیگر مردانگی یافت نمی شود بلکه پسرانگی تمدید شده است. از سوی دیگر، امروز دیگر دخترانگی هم یافت نمیشود؛ هرچه هست زنانگی بسط یافته است. دختران از سنین پایین زنانگی را تمرین میکنند و ...
May 23, 2021
El libro ha sido todo un descubrimiento, en su sentido más amplio. Estaba en la biblioteca tratando de encontrar, de nuevo, otro libro sobre Bourdieu (ese autor que siempre hay que deletrear para que busquen en el archivo) . Y mientras contaba en mi cabeza las letras del abecedario para llegar a la O en la B (j-k-l-m-n-ñ-O!!), me asaltó el nombre de Badiou recorriendo con mis ojos la estantería de Sociología. Total, yo llevaba un tiempo queriendo leer algo suyo y, de hecho, hace unas semanas me había pasado por la biblioteca en busca de su famoso "Elogio del amor" después de ver un documental sobre él. Pero no hubo suerte.
Cuando lo vi fue como cuando llegas a una librería buscando ese libro que tanto ansias, pero mejor: porque en este caso ni lo necesitaba urgentemente: fue un "deseo desbloqueado". Lo peor es que me llevé, primero, un chasco cuando lo editaba Malpaso, después una alegría porque así no financiaba a la editorial (que lleva años sin pagar a colaboradores y traductores) y, al final, otro chasco por no poder tener el libro para mí (cosas que tiene lo público, que todo es de todos).
Después estuvo el descubrimiento del libro, que ha sido aún mejor. Me ha dejado con muchas ganas de leer más cosas suyas. Es toda una reivindicación por encontrar desde los jóvenes un sentido compartido a nuestras vidas, que no es más ni menos que el que vayamos construyendo. Al principio es muy accesible, e incluso parece un libro de autoayuda si no fuese porque lo escribe un renombrado filósofo que se declara maoísta en la década del 2020 (y lo que diablos signifique eso), pero da bastantes ganas de vivir, que nunca está de más oye. Luego separa el libro, que es muy cortito y de letra grande (para los lectores de metro y entre horas), entre un mensaje para los chicos y otro para las chicas. La tesis es que en el mundo contemporáneo nos hemos quitado de las tradiciones sin haber creado un sustitutivo de identificacion igualitaria, aunque lo plantea de forma distinta en hombres que en mujeres, y viceversa. En general, nos recuerda que los hombres somos un poco cenizos (cosa que está muy bien y es cierta) y que las mujeres no, o no tanto. En la última parte, dedicada a las mujeres, a veces patina, pero serán cuestiones de la edad, que es cuando necesitas agarrarte al bastón para no caerte.
Leedlo en unas horitas y de vuelta a la biblio.
Cuando lo vi fue como cuando llegas a una librería buscando ese libro que tanto ansias, pero mejor: porque en este caso ni lo necesitaba urgentemente: fue un "deseo desbloqueado". Lo peor es que me llevé, primero, un chasco cuando lo editaba Malpaso, después una alegría porque así no financiaba a la editorial (que lleva años sin pagar a colaboradores y traductores) y, al final, otro chasco por no poder tener el libro para mí (cosas que tiene lo público, que todo es de todos).
Después estuvo el descubrimiento del libro, que ha sido aún mejor. Me ha dejado con muchas ganas de leer más cosas suyas. Es toda una reivindicación por encontrar desde los jóvenes un sentido compartido a nuestras vidas, que no es más ni menos que el que vayamos construyendo. Al principio es muy accesible, e incluso parece un libro de autoayuda si no fuese porque lo escribe un renombrado filósofo que se declara maoísta en la década del 2020 (y lo que diablos signifique eso), pero da bastantes ganas de vivir, que nunca está de más oye. Luego separa el libro, que es muy cortito y de letra grande (para los lectores de metro y entre horas), entre un mensaje para los chicos y otro para las chicas. La tesis es que en el mundo contemporáneo nos hemos quitado de las tradiciones sin haber creado un sustitutivo de identificacion igualitaria, aunque lo plantea de forma distinta en hombres que en mujeres, y viceversa. En general, nos recuerda que los hombres somos un poco cenizos (cosa que está muy bien y es cierta) y que las mujeres no, o no tanto. En la última parte, dedicada a las mujeres, a veces patina, pero serán cuestiones de la edad, que es cuando necesitas agarrarte al bastón para no caerte.
Leedlo en unas horitas y de vuelta a la biblio.
July 29, 2018
I look up to Alain Badiou. This is not his best book or his worst book. 79 years of age, this small book is a collection of his lectures to schools and youth groups.
He offers evocative and provocative statements, as we expect from Badiou. He offers some pithy commentaries on capitalism. But I remain disturbed by his discourse on women, girls, femininity and feminism.
When discussing women, it is clear Badiou is 79 years old. Still, in his conservative and simplistic theorization of femininity, there is the foundation for future scholarship.
He remains a gift to the planet. A great philosopher. His oddities only enhance this gift.
He offers evocative and provocative statements, as we expect from Badiou. He offers some pithy commentaries on capitalism. But I remain disturbed by his discourse on women, girls, femininity and feminism.
When discussing women, it is clear Badiou is 79 years old. Still, in his conservative and simplistic theorization of femininity, there is the foundation for future scholarship.
He remains a gift to the planet. A great philosopher. His oddities only enhance this gift.
May 6, 2020
“Tanrı’dan rahatlıkla vazgeçebileceğimize derhal ikna olmak için bir kadına bakmak, ona gerçekten bakmak yeterlidir. Geleneksel toplumlarda kadın bu yüzden gözden uzak tutulur. Gelenek, Tanrı’yı ne pahasına olursa olsun hayatta tutabilmek için kadınları kesinlikle görünmez kılmak gerektiğini bilir.”
March 18, 2018
A decent, quick read that might serve well (sort of) as an introduction to Badiou.
August 30, 2018
Menarik. Aktual, meski pembahasannya terbatas pada masyarakat yang sudah ter-Baratkan saja.
November 24, 2020
Müthiş, etkili, dolu dolu. 2016-17 için biraz tekrar eden söylemler gibi geliyor, doğru, fakat yine de bu böyle.
Read
June 5, 2023- être jeune aujourd'hui: entre sens et non-sens
Socrate en tant que "corrupteur de la jeunesse" mais sur quoi porte cette "corruption" ? Pas question de l'argent, de la morale/plaisir/sexe ou pouvoir mais de la vraie vie. Ennemis intérieurs de la vraie vie (et contradictoires) : passion pour la vie immédiate (brûler sa vie) + passion pour la réussite (construire sa vie) qui expliquent les deux grands jugements opposés sur la jeunesse (moment merveilleux ou terrible).
État de la jeunesse actuelle : liberté (moins d'initiation à l'âge adulte) + plus valorisée que la vieillesse = jeunisme (corps) + moins fracturée (démocratisation scolaire, mobilité sociale). Pb : errance donc désorientation, peur de la jeunesse (jeunesse des cités, chômage...). Idée militante : alliance jeunes et vieux contre adultes
Refs :
--> dialogue entre Socrate/Samantha/Glauque sur la vraie vie dans la République de Platon par Badiou
--> Rimbaud "la vraie vie est absente", Une saison en enfer
--> Freud, pulsion de vie et de mort
--> devise "no future"
--> Hugo, la Légende des siècles "Booz endormi"
--> Paul Nizan, Aden Arabie
CITATIONS :
"Si bien que l'amour est en définitive la création d'une nouvelle pensée, qui s'anime, non de la seule sexualité, mais de ce qu'on peut appeler l'amour sexué-pensé."
"C'est le pouvoir qui corrompt et non pas le philosophe. Ce que le philosophe peut apporter à la politique, c'est non pas du tout la volonté de puissance, mais le désintéressement."
"Fondamentalement, corrompre la jeunesse cela veut dire une seule chose : tenter de faire que la jeunesse rentre pas dans les chemins déjà tracés, qu'elle ne soit pas simplement vouée à une obéissance aux coutumes de la cité, qu'elle puisse inventer quelque chose, proposer une autre orientation en ce qui concerne la vraie vie."
"Mais quand tout cela s'entasse, est poussé à son comble, quand cette passion organise une vie au jour le jour, une vie suspendu à l'immédiat du temps, une vie où l'avenir est invisible ou en tout cas totalement obscur, alors on est conduit à une forme de nihilisme, une forme de conception de l'existence sans aucun sens unifié."
"On pourrait dire que cette vision de la vie c'est quand la pulsion de vie est secrètement habitée par la pulsion de mort."
"Entre l'adolescence des jeunes et la soumission générale à la règle de l'achat, avec des sujets qui tous comparaissent devant la scintillation des marchandises sur le marché mondial, nous avons comme résultat une espèce d'errance de la jeunesse."
"Monde de la tradition"
Socrate en tant que "corrupteur de la jeunesse" mais sur quoi porte cette "corruption" ? Pas question de l'argent, de la morale/plaisir/sexe ou pouvoir mais de la vraie vie. Ennemis intérieurs de la vraie vie (et contradictoires) : passion pour la vie immédiate (brûler sa vie) + passion pour la réussite (construire sa vie) qui expliquent les deux grands jugements opposés sur la jeunesse (moment merveilleux ou terrible).
État de la jeunesse actuelle : liberté (moins d'initiation à l'âge adulte) + plus valorisée que la vieillesse = jeunisme (corps) + moins fracturée (démocratisation scolaire, mobilité sociale). Pb : errance donc désorientation, peur de la jeunesse (jeunesse des cités, chômage...). Idée militante : alliance jeunes et vieux contre adultes
Refs :
--> dialogue entre Socrate/Samantha/Glauque sur la vraie vie dans la République de Platon par Badiou
--> Rimbaud "la vraie vie est absente", Une saison en enfer
--> Freud, pulsion de vie et de mort
--> devise "no future"
--> Hugo, la Légende des siècles "Booz endormi"
--> Paul Nizan, Aden Arabie
CITATIONS :
"Si bien que l'amour est en définitive la création d'une nouvelle pensée, qui s'anime, non de la seule sexualité, mais de ce qu'on peut appeler l'amour sexué-pensé."
"C'est le pouvoir qui corrompt et non pas le philosophe. Ce que le philosophe peut apporter à la politique, c'est non pas du tout la volonté de puissance, mais le désintéressement."
"Fondamentalement, corrompre la jeunesse cela veut dire une seule chose : tenter de faire que la jeunesse rentre pas dans les chemins déjà tracés, qu'elle ne soit pas simplement vouée à une obéissance aux coutumes de la cité, qu'elle puisse inventer quelque chose, proposer une autre orientation en ce qui concerne la vraie vie."
"Mais quand tout cela s'entasse, est poussé à son comble, quand cette passion organise une vie au jour le jour, une vie suspendu à l'immédiat du temps, une vie où l'avenir est invisible ou en tout cas totalement obscur, alors on est conduit à une forme de nihilisme, une forme de conception de l'existence sans aucun sens unifié."
"On pourrait dire que cette vision de la vie c'est quand la pulsion de vie est secrètement habitée par la pulsion de mort."
"Entre l'adolescence des jeunes et la soumission générale à la règle de l'achat, avec des sujets qui tous comparaissent devant la scintillation des marchandises sur le marché mondial, nous avons comme résultat une espèce d'errance de la jeunesse."
"Monde de la tradition"
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 24, 2020
Breve, sustancial y certero. Explica con las palabras suficientes para que en verdad sea un mensaje a los jóvenes.
Me gustó cómo toma a la figura terrenal -porque la representación cuasi divina de Rimbaud en la actualidad ha trascendido el mero campo poético para venir a ser algo ulterior a sí mismo- del enfant terrible por antonomasia para ejemplificar su punto principal. Después, empieza a desarrollar ese punto para llegar a la cuestión de la puerilización del adulto moderno gobernada por el imperio de lo inmediato en el mercado. La continuidad laxa a la que se refiere puede apreciarse totalmente si uno va a una sala de cine durante cualquier función de cualquier película de superhéroes, se notará cómo estará poblada por adultos ansiosos y obsesos, dispuestos a no renunciar a su infancia interminable como diría el mismísimo Alan Moore.
Asimismo, hace notar la carencia de Realidad en movimientos como el de "Occupy Wall Street".
La abolición de las estructuras clásicas de la Tradición en pos de una 'libertad neutral' cuyo único referente universal es el dinero, a su vez, las dos reacciones a ella: la apología a la vacuidad del capitalismo y la nostalgia a un pasado hiperromantizado -insuflado por creencias religiosas- como solución final. Lo cual, también, puede caer en inquietudes nacionales, de raza o de individualidad. Todas contradicciones que se contradicen unas a otras, todas falaces y peligrosas para Badiou, y en general, para cualquier ser humano con un ápice de raciocinio y sensibilidad.
De ahí nacen los dos capítulos finales que hablan sobre el devenir de ambos géneros pubescentes, que en mayor o menor medida, engrosan la idea general y que no dejarán indiferente a nadie. Concuerdo con su crítica al feminismo burgués, ese que aparece en la televisión para decirnos descaradamente lo que debería 'ser' una mujer; el feminismo o abraza al anarquismo o abraza al capital, y si abraza al capital, entonces es falaz y peligroso.
En suma, un librito cuya tenaz y ágil prosa facilitará el paso a las interesantes ideas que la subyacen. Como dije más arriba, no dejará indiferente a nadie.
Me gustó cómo toma a la figura terrenal -porque la representación cuasi divina de Rimbaud en la actualidad ha trascendido el mero campo poético para venir a ser algo ulterior a sí mismo- del enfant terrible por antonomasia para ejemplificar su punto principal. Después, empieza a desarrollar ese punto para llegar a la cuestión de la puerilización del adulto moderno gobernada por el imperio de lo inmediato en el mercado. La continuidad laxa a la que se refiere puede apreciarse totalmente si uno va a una sala de cine durante cualquier función de cualquier película de superhéroes, se notará cómo estará poblada por adultos ansiosos y obsesos, dispuestos a no renunciar a su infancia interminable como diría el mismísimo Alan Moore.
Asimismo, hace notar la carencia de Realidad en movimientos como el de "Occupy Wall Street".
La abolición de las estructuras clásicas de la Tradición en pos de una 'libertad neutral' cuyo único referente universal es el dinero, a su vez, las dos reacciones a ella: la apología a la vacuidad del capitalismo y la nostalgia a un pasado hiperromantizado -insuflado por creencias religiosas- como solución final. Lo cual, también, puede caer en inquietudes nacionales, de raza o de individualidad. Todas contradicciones que se contradicen unas a otras, todas falaces y peligrosas para Badiou, y en general, para cualquier ser humano con un ápice de raciocinio y sensibilidad.
De ahí nacen los dos capítulos finales que hablan sobre el devenir de ambos géneros pubescentes, que en mayor o menor medida, engrosan la idea general y que no dejarán indiferente a nadie. Concuerdo con su crítica al feminismo burgués, ese que aparece en la televisión para decirnos descaradamente lo que debería 'ser' una mujer; el feminismo o abraza al anarquismo o abraza al capital, y si abraza al capital, entonces es falaz y peligroso.
En suma, un librito cuya tenaz y ágil prosa facilitará el paso a las interesantes ideas que la subyacen. Como dije más arriba, no dejará indiferente a nadie.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 23, 2024
What is the true life? To be honest, I wouldn't be able to tell you. What I can say with some modicum of certainty, and which I agree with in this book, is that the false life is a life conceived of and lived as a fierce struggle for power and money.
Badiou lays down 2 passions that young people struggle with: 1. passion for immediate life (spontaneity, fulfillment of pleasure, a life divided by the good moments 2. passion for success (an upward trajectory toward self-establishment usually in a career, obtaining a good position in the social order).
I understand that a balance of these two passions is a solid formula, but again that's for the individual to decide.
I absolutely appreciate how Badiou frames the adventure of life as a duty. In his view, we have a duty to form meaningful relationships that expand our understanding of the world, a duty to escape the disorientation of the marketplace of unending consumption, a "duty to be attentive to what's going on" and attentive to the signs that something different is possible. In a way, Badiou encourages the youth to fight and struggle against tradition and the norm.
What I loved the most from this book was the emphasis on self-realization, how a seemingly ordinary experience can reveal something unique within. To end, I will leave a quote, mostly for myself to return to.
Badiou lays down 2 passions that young people struggle with: 1. passion for immediate life (spontaneity, fulfillment of pleasure, a life divided by the good moments 2. passion for success (an upward trajectory toward self-establishment usually in a career, obtaining a good position in the social order).
I understand that a balance of these two passions is a solid formula, but again that's for the individual to decide.
I absolutely appreciate how Badiou frames the adventure of life as a duty. In his view, we have a duty to form meaningful relationships that expand our understanding of the world, a duty to escape the disorientation of the marketplace of unending consumption, a "duty to be attentive to what's going on" and attentive to the signs that something different is possible. In a way, Badiou encourages the youth to fight and struggle against tradition and the norm.
What I loved the most from this book was the emphasis on self-realization, how a seemingly ordinary experience can reveal something unique within. To end, I will leave a quote, mostly for myself to return to.
To put it another way, there's what you are capable of - building your life, using what you're capable of - but there's also what you don't yet know you're capable of, which is actually the most important thing...this revelation that you're capable of much more than you thought you were can also occur when you take part in a movement for a new idea of collective life; when you feel the first stirrings of an artistic vocation because you've been deeply affected by a book, a piece of music, or a painting; or when you're drawn to some new scientific problems. In all these cases, you discover a capacity in yourself that you were unaware of.
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September 14, 2024Sometimes French philosophers really know what they’re talking about. Truthfully, Badiou lost me on quite a few occasions (especially during the 2nd chaper on boys) but somehow always came back to close the point with an excellent afterthought. The 3rd and final chapter titled “About the contemporary fate of girls” was by far the best. Just starting it off by mentioning that he is hesitant as a man approaching a topic about girls and young women, was a good sign. He very intelligently exposed hundreds of years of traditional, male dominated society in just one chapter, and spoke about women and their role in a way I’ve basically never heard any men (or women) talk. Some parts that I want to keep in mind to come back to: A woman is always herself the earthly proof that God doesn't exist, that God doesn't need to exist. All you have to do is look at a woman, really look at her, to be instantly convinced that we can easily do without God. That's why, in traditional socities, women are kept out of sight. Tradition knows that, to keep God alive no matter what, women absolutely have to be made invisible. In the world of tradition, male mediation constituted the girl in the following sense: what separated the girl from the woman was the man, through the mediation of marriage. …it is not calling for a different world to be created but for the world to be turned over to woman power. Basically, the idea is that not only can women do everything men do, but, under the conditions of capitalism, they can do it better than men. They'll be more realistic than men, more relentless, more tenacious. Why? Precisely because girls no longer have to become the women that they already are, while boys don't know how to become the men that they are not.
March 20, 2023
An Unexamined Life Is Not Worth Living...
What have you done in your life that was worth the effort?
What is it that you spend your time for, spend your time, work for, worry about, and call it really worth it?
Let's ask this question from Nietzsche's point of view. Is it worth the effort to get you to transcend yourself? Can money, pleasure, power help you transcend yourself? And are they worth the trouble?
In this work, Badiou takes serious steps to lead the youth astray. This act of misdirection is of course something far beyond money, pleasure and power, in Real Life...
The thing called Real Life is in an uncontrollable and unknowable form outside the life styles and boundaries, which are completely reflexive qualities that the system teaches to the societies by heart.
It is the general reflex of human beings to investigate the unknown and to think about the unknown. Because people are afraid of the unknown/unknown. Badiou interprets the unpredictable as the period of youth in human life. And the reason why those who have money, pleasure and power keep the society in a controllable and predictable position in order to ensure its continuation is actually the fear of the unknown. At this point, Badiou wants to draw young people to the point of obscurity, like philosophy, in order to pursue real life.
It is one of the rare works that can be called as little-known excellent books.
What have you done in your life that was worth the effort?
What is it that you spend your time for, spend your time, work for, worry about, and call it really worth it?
Let's ask this question from Nietzsche's point of view. Is it worth the effort to get you to transcend yourself? Can money, pleasure, power help you transcend yourself? And are they worth the trouble?
In this work, Badiou takes serious steps to lead the youth astray. This act of misdirection is of course something far beyond money, pleasure and power, in Real Life...
The thing called Real Life is in an uncontrollable and unknowable form outside the life styles and boundaries, which are completely reflexive qualities that the system teaches to the societies by heart.
It is the general reflex of human beings to investigate the unknown and to think about the unknown. Because people are afraid of the unknown/unknown. Badiou interprets the unpredictable as the period of youth in human life. And the reason why those who have money, pleasure and power keep the society in a controllable and predictable position in order to ensure its continuation is actually the fear of the unknown. At this point, Badiou wants to draw young people to the point of obscurity, like philosophy, in order to pursue real life.
It is one of the rare works that can be called as little-known excellent books.
January 15, 2022
anti kapitalizm bir hastalık gibi toplumsal olaylara bakışı da etkiliyor.
isminden dolayı tamamen anti gelenekçi bir context içerisinde yazılmış bir kitap olacağını umarak okumaya başlamıştım aslında, çünkü ben de kendimi kesinlikle anti gelenekçi birisi olarak tanımlarım. geleneklerin sorgulanması gerektiğini ve günümüz insanının faydasına değilse, günlük hayatımızın dışına itilmesini destekliyorum. zaten bu dönüşüm çok minimal düzeyde de olsa her jenerasyonda gerçekleşiyor. tabii ki radikal düzeyde olmasını tercih ederim.
yazarın anti kapitalist ve sol görüşlü olması sebebiyle tek bir perspektiften bakarak, toplumun “idea”sını da marksist görüşlere göre şekillendirmesi gerektiğini savunmuş olduğunu zannediyorum. tam emin de değilim aslında çünkü narrative yönden bakılırsa derdini anlatma konusunda çok başarılı bir kitap da sayılmaz. kısa olmasına rağmen okuması zor bir eser çıkmış ortaya. “gençliği yoldan çıkarmak” diye bahsedilen de, kapitalizm düşmanlığından başka bir şey değilmiş.
isminden dolayı tamamen anti gelenekçi bir context içerisinde yazılmış bir kitap olacağını umarak okumaya başlamıştım aslında, çünkü ben de kendimi kesinlikle anti gelenekçi birisi olarak tanımlarım. geleneklerin sorgulanması gerektiğini ve günümüz insanının faydasına değilse, günlük hayatımızın dışına itilmesini destekliyorum. zaten bu dönüşüm çok minimal düzeyde de olsa her jenerasyonda gerçekleşiyor. tabii ki radikal düzeyde olmasını tercih ederim.
yazarın anti kapitalist ve sol görüşlü olması sebebiyle tek bir perspektiften bakarak, toplumun “idea”sını da marksist görüşlere göre şekillendirmesi gerektiğini savunmuş olduğunu zannediyorum. tam emin de değilim aslında çünkü narrative yönden bakılırsa derdini anlatma konusunda çok başarılı bir kitap da sayılmaz. kısa olmasına rağmen okuması zor bir eser çıkmış ortaya. “gençliği yoldan çıkarmak” diye bahsedilen de, kapitalizm düşmanlığından başka bir şey değilmiş.
October 8, 2023
Badiou'nun kitabına bundan birkaç yıl önce bir kitap fuarında denk geldim. Annemin ilgimi çekebileceğini düşündüğü bir kitaptı. 2019 ve üniversitenin ilk yılıydı. Kitaba bir türlü giremedim.
Üzerinden 4 yıl geçtikten (ve bir sürü okuma teşebbüsünden) sonra, nihayet kitabı tek oturuşta okudum.
Kitabın ilk kısmı oldukça keyifliydi, özellikle yozlaşmanın üçlemesi (para, cinsellik, iktidar) ve genç insanın hayatını inşa/yok etme diyalektiği üzerine olan paragraflar oldukça ilginçti.
Geri kalan kısımlar pek de etkileyici değildi. Marx, feminizm, sol ya da daha genel olarak kapitalizmin eleştirisi hakkında okuma yapmış insanları biraz sıkabilir.
Ayrıca sapkın bedenin tasvirinde dövme ve piercing gibi imajların kullanımı oldukça çağ dışıydı. Yazarın 1937 doğumlu olduğunu göze alırsak pek de şaşırtıcı gelmeyebilir.
Keşke kitabı aldığım sene okusaydım. Daha önce felsefe ile haşır neşir olduysanız, kitabın ''yoldan çıkarıcı'' bir yanı yok. Lise döneminde giriş niteliğinde okunması gereken bir kitap. Belli ki Badiou'nun da asıl amacı buydu.
Üzerinden 4 yıl geçtikten (ve bir sürü okuma teşebbüsünden) sonra, nihayet kitabı tek oturuşta okudum.
Kitabın ilk kısmı oldukça keyifliydi, özellikle yozlaşmanın üçlemesi (para, cinsellik, iktidar) ve genç insanın hayatını inşa/yok etme diyalektiği üzerine olan paragraflar oldukça ilginçti.
Geri kalan kısımlar pek de etkileyici değildi. Marx, feminizm, sol ya da daha genel olarak kapitalizmin eleştirisi hakkında okuma yapmış insanları biraz sıkabilir.
Ayrıca sapkın bedenin tasvirinde dövme ve piercing gibi imajların kullanımı oldukça çağ dışıydı. Yazarın 1937 doğumlu olduğunu göze alırsak pek de şaşırtıcı gelmeyebilir.
Keşke kitabı aldığım sene okusaydım. Daha önce felsefe ile haşır neşir olduysanız, kitabın ''yoldan çıkarıcı'' bir yanı yok. Lise döneminde giriş niteliğinde okunması gereken bir kitap. Belli ki Badiou'nun da asıl amacı buydu.
February 11, 2025
I liked this book in the sense that it made me think of current theme's that are going on in our capitalist society, such as orientation, identity, tradition, universality, purpose and symbolism. It fullfills me to be able to think further than consumerism, materialsm and to see the mechanisms and drives behind this. The message of the book is like a call to search for- and to create a new common ground, an egalitarian symbolism that can provide guidance in life, based on politics, art, science and love. Although I don't know directly how to concretely do this, I feel there is some kind of aspiration in me that encourages me to think, question and be willing to change and adapt when needed. It feels like the author's message is important, even though I didn't understand and grasp everything. This is a book worthwhile to discuss further with other people and also to read it several times.
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