Alain Badiou is a French philosopher who previously occupied the Department of Philosophy at the Higher Normal School in Paris and founded the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Paris VIII with Gilles Deleuze, Michel Foucault and Jean-Francois Lyotard. He wrote about the concepts of being, truth, event and subject, which, in his opinion, are neither postmodern, nor a simple repetition of modernism. Badiu participated in a number of political organizations and regularly comments on political events. He advocates the resurrection of the idea of communism.
short biography
Alain Badiou is the son of a mathematician and member of the French Resistance during World War II, Raymond Badiou. He studied at the Lyceum Louis-Le-Grand, and then at the Higher Normal School (1955-1960). In 1960 he wrote a thesis on Spinoza. Since 1963, he taught at the Lyceum in Reims, where he became a close friend of the playwright and philosopher Francois Reno. He published several novels before moving to the Faculty of Literature at the University of Reims and then in 1969 to the University of Paris VIII (Vincent-Saint-Denis).
Badiou early became politically active and was one of the founders of the United Socialist Party, which led an active struggle for the decolonization of Algeria. He wrote his first novel, Almagest, in 1964. In 1967, he joined a research group organized by Louis Althusser, more and more influenced by Jacques Lacan, and became a member of the editorial board of Cahiers pour l'Analyze. By that time, he already had a solid foundation in mathematics and logic (along with Lacan’s theory) and his works published on the pages of the journal anticipated many of the distinguishing features of his later philosophy.
Political activity
Student protests in May 1968 strengthened Badiu’s commitment to extreme leftist ideas, and he participated in increasingly radical groups such as the Union of French Communists (Marxist-Leninists). As the philosopher himself said, it was a Maoist organization created at the end of 1969 by him, Natasha Michel, Sylvanas Lazarus and many other young people. During this time, Badiou started working at the new University of Paris VIII, which became the mainstay of countercultural thought. There he participated in a fierce intellectual debate with Gilles Deleuze and Jean-Francois Liotard, whose philosophical works he considered unhealthy deviations from the program of scientific Marxism by Louis Altusser.
In the 1980s, when Althusserian Marxism and Lacanian psychoanalysis began to decline (after Lacan’s death and Althusser’s placement in a psychiatric hospital), Badiou published more technical and abstract philosophical works, such as Theory of the Subject (1982) and the magnum opus Genesis and event ”(1988). Nevertheless, he never abandoned Althusser and Lacan, and supportive references to Marxism and psychoanalysis are not uncommon in his later works (first of all, The Portable Pantheon).
He took his current position at the Higher Normal School in 1999. In addition, he is associated with a number of other institutions, such as the International School of Philosophy. He was a member of the Political Organization, which he founded in 1985 with some comrades from the Maoist SCF (ml). This organization was disbanded in 2007. In 2002, Badiou, together with Yves Duro and his former student Quentin Meyasu, founded the International Center for the Study of Contemporary French Philosophy. He was also a successful playwright: his play Ahmed le Subtil was popular.
Such works by Alain Badiu, such as the “Manifesto of Philosophy”, “Ethics”, “Deleuze”, “Metapolitics”, “Being and Event” were translated into other languages. His short works also appeared in American and English periodicals. It is unusual for a modern European philosopher that his work is increasingly being paid attention in countries such as India, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Africa.
In 2005-2006, Badiou conducted a fierce polemic in Parisian intellectual circles, which caused the publication of his work, “Circumstances 3: the use of the word“ Jew ”. The bickering caused a series of articles in the French newspaper Le Monde and in the cultural journal Les Temps modernes. Linguist and Lacanian Jean-Claude Milner, former president of the International School of Philosophy, accused the author of anti-Semitism.
In 2014-2015, Badiu served as Honorary President at the Global Center for Advanced Studies.
Main ideas
Alain Badiou is one of the most significant philosophers of our time, and his political position has attracted great attention in the scientific community and beyond. The center of his system is an ontology based on pure mathematics - in particular, on the theory of sets and categories. Its vast complexity structure refers to the history of modern French philosophy, German idealism and works of antiquity. It consists of a series of denials, as well as what the author calls conditions: art, politics, science and love. As Alain Badiou writes in Being and Event (2005), philosophy is what “circulates between ontology (that is, mathematics), modern subject theories and its own history.” Since he was an outspoken critic of both analytical and postmodern schools, he seeks in every situation to reveal and analyze the potential of radical innovations (revolutions, inventions, transformations).
Main works
The primary philosophical system developed by Alain Badiu was built in the Logic of the Worlds: Being and Event II and Immanence of Truth: Being and Event III. Around these works - in accordance with his definition of philosophy - numerous additional and tangential works are written. Although many significant books remain untranslated, some have found their readers. This is “Deleuze: the noise of being” (1999), “Metapolitics” (2005), “The meaning of Sarkozy” (2008), “Apostle Paul: the rationale for universalism” (2003), “The Second manifesto of philosophy” (2011), “Ethics: essay on the understanding of evil ”(2001),“ Theoretical works ”(2004),“ The mysterious connection between politics and philosophy ”(2011),“ Theory of the subject ”(2009),“ Republic of Plato: dialogue in 16 chapters ”(2012),“ Polemic ”(2006),“ Philosophy and Event ”(2013),“ Praise of Love ”(2012),“ Conditions ”(2008),“ Century ”(2007),“ Wittgenstein Antiphilosophy ”(2011),“ Five Wagner Lessons ” (2010), and The Adventures of French Philosophy (2012) et al. In addition to Badiou's books published countless articles that can be found in philosophical, political, and psychoanalytic collections. He is also the author of several successful novels and plays.
“Ethics: An Essay on the Consciousness of Evil” by Alain Badiou is an application of his universal philosophical system to morality and ethics. In the book, the author attacks the ethics of differences, arguing that its objective basis is multiculturalism - a tourist's admiration for the diversity of customs and beliefs. In The Ethics, Alain Badiou concludes that in the doctrine according to which each individual is determined by how he differs, the differences are leveled. Also, abandoning theological and scientific interpretations, the author places good and evil in the structure of subjectivity, actions and human freedom.
In the work “Apostle Paul,” Alain Badiou interprets the doctrine and activity of St. Paul as an expression of the desire for truth, which opposes ethical and social relations. He managed to create a community that was not subject to anything but the Event - the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The Manifesto of Philosophy by Alain Badiou: a summary of the chapters
In his work, the author proposes to revive philosophy as a universal doctrine stipulated by science, art, politics and love, which provides them with harmonious coexistence.
In the chapter “Opportunity”, the author asks whether philosophy has reached its end, since only she took responsibility for Nazism and the Holocaust. This view is confirmed by the fact that it is the cause of the spirit of the time that gave rise to them. But what if Nazism is not an object of philosophical thought, but a political and historical product? Badiou suggests exploring the conditions in which this becomes possible.
They are transversal and are procedures of truth: science, politics, art and love. Not all societies had them, as happened with Greece. 4 generic conditions are generated not by philosophy, but by truth. They are of event origin. Events are additions to situations and are described by common surplus names. Philosophy provides a conceptual space for such a name. It acts on the borders of situations and knowledge, during a crisis, a coup of the established social order. That is, philosophy creates problems, but does not solve them, constructing the space of thought in time.
In the chapter “Modernity” Badiou defines the “period” of philosophy when a certain configuration of the general space of thinking prevails in 4 generic procedures of truth. He distinguishes the following sequence of configurations: mathematical (Descartes and Leibniz), political (Russo, Hegel) and poetic (from Nietzsche to Heidegger). But even with such temporary changes, one can see the constant theme of the Subject. "Should we continue?" - asks Alain Badiou in the “Manifesto of Philosophy”.
A summary of the next chapter is a summary of Heidegger's views in the late 1980s.
In the section "Nihilism?" The author considers Heidegger's comparison of global technology with nihilism. According to Badiou, our era is neither technological nor nihilistic.
Stitches
Badiou expresses the opinion that the problems of philosophy are connected with the blocking of freedom of thought between truth procedures, delegating this function to one of its conditions, that is, science, politics, poetry or love. He calls this situation a “seam”. For example, this was Marxism, since it placed philosophy and other truth-procedures in political conditions.
Poetic “seams” are discussed in the chapter “The Age of Poets”. When philosophy limited science or politics, poetry took over their functions. Before Heidegger there were no seams with poetry. Badiou notes that poetry removes the category of the object, insisting on the failure of life, and that Heidegger sewed philosophy with poetry in order to level it with scientific knowledge. Now, after the Age of Poets, it is necessary to get rid of this seam by conceptualizing disorientation.
Events
The author argues that the turning events allow us to continue the Cartesian philosophy. In this chapter of the “Manifesto of Philosophy,” Alain Badiou briefly dwells on each of the four tribal conditions.
In mathematics, this is a distinguishable concept of indistinguishable plurality, not limited to any language features. Truth forms a hole in knowledge: it is impossible to quantify the relationship between an infinite set and its many subsets. From this arises the nominalist, transcendental, and tribal orientations of thought. The first recognizes the existence of named sets, the second suffers indistinguishable, but only as a sign of our ultimate inability to accept the point of view of higher plurality. Generic thought accepts the challenge, it is militant, because truths are subtracted from knowledge and supported only by the loyalty of the subjects. The name of the event of the mathema is indistinguishable or generic plurality, a purely plural being-in-truth.
In love, a return to philosophy lies through Lacan. From it, the Double is comprehended as a split of the One. It leads to tribal plurality freed from knowledge.
In politics, these are the vague events of 1965-1980: the Chinese Cultural Revolution, May 68th, Solidarity, the Iranian Revolution. Their political name is unknown. This demonstrates that the event is above the language. Politics can stabilize the name of events. It determines philosophy by understanding how politically invented names of troubled events correlate with other events in science, love, and poetry.
In poetry, this is the work of Celan. He asks to release her from the burden of seam.
In the next chapter, the author asks three questions regarding modern philosophy: how to comprehend the Double without dialectics and without an object, and also indistinguishable.
Platonic gesture
Badiu refers to Plato an understanding of the relation of philosophy to its four conditions, as well as the struggle against sophistry. He sees in big sophistry heterogeneous language games, doubts about the appropriateness of understanding the truth, a rhetorical closeness to art, a pragmatic and open politics, or "democracy." It is no accident that getting rid of the “seams” in philosophy passes through sophistry. She is symptomatic.
Modern anti-Platonism goes back to Nietzsche, according to which the truth is a lie for the good of some form of life. Nietzsche is also anti-platonic in stitching philosophy with poetry and leaving mathematics. Badiou sees his task in curing Europe of anti-Platonism, the key to which is the concept of truth.
The philosopher offers "platonism of the plural." But what is truth that is multiple in its being and therefore separate from language? What is truth if it is indistinguishable?
The central place is occupied by the generic plurality of Paul Cohen. In "Being and an Event," Badiou showed that mathematics is an ontology (being as such is accomplished in mathematics), but the event is non-being-as-such. “Generic” takes into account the internal consequences of an event replenishing a plural situation. Truth is the result of multiple intersections of the validity of a situation that would otherwise prove generic or indistinguishable.
Badiou identifies 3 criteria for the truth of multiplicity: its immanence, belonging to an event that complements the situation, and the failure of the situation.
The four procedures of truth are generic. Thus, it is possible to return to the triad of modern philosophy - being, subject and truth. Being is mathematics, truth is the post-event being of generic multiplicity, and the subject is the final moment of the generic procedure. Therefore, there are only creative, scientific, political or love subjects. Beyond this, there is only existence.
All events of our century are patrimonial. This is what corresponds to the modern conditions of philosophy. Since 1973, politics has become egalitarian and anti-state, following the tribal in man and has adopted features communism. Poetry explores non-instrumental language. Mathematics covers pure generic plurality without representative differences. Love announces a commitment to the pure Double, which makes the existence of men and women a tribal truth.
The implementation of the communist hypothesis
Most of Badiou's life and work was shaped by his dedication to the ideas of the student uprising in May 1968 in Paris. In Sarkozy’s Sense, he writes that the task facing the negative experience of the socialist states and the mixed lessons of the Cultural Revolution and May 1968 is complex, unstable, experimental, and consists in realizing the communist hypothesis in a different form than the above. In his opinion, this idea remains correct and there is no alternative to it. If it needs to be discarded, then nothing should be done in the order of collective action. Without the perspective of communism, nothing in the historical and political future can interest the philosopher.
Ontology
For Badiu, being is mathematically pure multiplicity, multiplicity without the One. Thus, it is inaccessible to understanding, which is always based on counting as a whole, with the exception of thought, the immanent truth-procedure, or set theory. This exception is key. Set theory is a theory of representation, so an ontology is a presentation. Ontology as a theory of sets is the philosophy of Alain Badiou's philosophy. For him, only set theory can write and think without the One.
According to the introductory reflections in “Being and Event”, philosophy is buried inside a false choice between being as such, One or plural. Like Hegel in his phenomenology of the spirit, Badiu aims to solve the constant difficulties in philosophy, opening up new horizons of thought. For him, the true opposition is not between the One and the plural, but between this pair and the third position, which they exclude: the non-One. In fact, this false pair is itself an exhaustive horizon of opportunity due to a lack of the third. The details of this thesis are developed in the first 6 parts of Genesis and Event. An essential consequence of it is that there is no direct access to being as pure multiplicity, since everything inside the situation seems to be one, and everything is a situation. The obvious paradox of this conclusion is the simultaneous confirmation of Truth and truths.
Like his German predecessors and Jacques Lacan, Badiu shares Nothing outside the concept of non-being and non-nothing, to which he gives the name "emptiness", since it means not nothing, which precedes even the assignment of a number. Truth at the ontological level is what the French philosopher, again borrowing from mathematics, calls the general plural. In short, this is his ontological basis for the world of truths he constructed.
Perhaps more than the claim that ontology is possible, Alain Badiu’s philosophy is different from the statement of Truth and Truth. If the former, strictly speaking, is philosophical, then the latter refers to conditions. Their connection is understandable due to the subtle distinction between religion and atheism or, more specifically, residual and imitative atheism and post-theological thought, that is, philosophy. Alain Badiou considers philosophy to be essentially empty, that is, without privileged access to some area of Truth, inaccessible to artistic, scientific, political and love thought and creation. Therefore, philosophy is defined by such conditions as the procedures of truth and ontology. The simplest way to formulate an apparent temporal paradox between philosophy and Truth and the truths of conditions is through Hegelian terminology: thoughts about conditions are particular, the constructed category of Truth is universal and truths of conditions, that is, true procedures, are unique. In other words, philosophy accepts the provisions on conditions and checks them, so to speak, in relation to ontology, and then builds from them the category that will serve as their measure - Truth. Thoughts on conditions, as they pass through the category of Truth, can be declared truths.
Therefore, the truths of the conditions are procedures caused by a crack in the sequence of representation, which he himself provided, are thoughts crossing the semblance of neutrality and naturalness of the situation from the position of the assumption that, ontologically, there is no One. In other words, truths are phenomena or phenomenal procedures that are true to the basics of ontology. Truth as a philosophical category, on the other hand, is a deductible universal articulation of these individual thoughts, which Badiu calls generic procedures.
This process, stretched between a collision with emptiness as a cause, and building a system that is not based on the predetermined reality of being, Badiou calls the subject. The subject himself includes a number of elements or moments - interference, fidelity and coercion. More specifically, this process (taking into account the nature of ontological truth) includes a series of subtractions that are always subtracted from any and all concepts of the One. Truth, therefore, is a process of subtracting truths.