Alain Badiou: biography, contribution to science

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:43

Alain Badiou is a French philosopher who previously held the chair of philosophy at the Ecole Normaleum in Paris and founded the philosophy department 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 postmodernist nor simply a repetition of modernism. Badiou has 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 Raymond Badiou, a mathematician and member of the French Resistance during World War II. He studied at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand and then at the Higher Normal School (1955–1960). In 1960 he wrote his thesis on Spinoza. From 1963 he taught at the Lycée in Reims, where he became a close friend of the playwright and philosopher François Renault. He published several novels before moving to the Faculty of Letters at the University of Reims and then in 1969 to the University of Paris VIII (Vincennes-Saint-Denis).

Badiou became politically active early 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 the research group organized by Louis Althusser, became increasingly influenced by Jacques Lacan, and became a member of the editorial board of Cahiers pour l'Analyze. By then he already had a solid foundation in mathematics and logic (along with Lacan's theory) and his journal-published work anticipated many of the hallmarks of his later philosophy.

Political activity

Student protests in May 1968 increased Badiou's commitment to the far left, and he became involved in increasingly radical groups such as the Union of Communists of France (Marxist-Leninists). As the philosopher himself said, it was a Maoist organization created at the end of 1969 by him, Natasha Michel, Silvan Lazar and many other young people. During this time, Badiou went to work at the new University of Paris VIII, which became a stronghold of countercultural thought. There he engaged in bitter intellectual debates with Gilles Deleuze and Jean-Francois Lyotard, whose philosophical writings he considered unhe althy deviations from Louis Althusser's program of scientific Marxism.

In the 1980s, as Althusser's Marxism and Lacanian psychoanalysis were on the decline (after Lacan's death and Althusser's incarceration), Badiou published moretechnical and abstract philosophical works such as The Theory of the Subject (1982) and the magnum opus Being and the Event (1988). However, he never abandoned Althusser and Lacan, and favorable references to Marxism and psychoanalysis are not uncommon in his later works (most notably The Portable Pantheon).

He took up his current position at Higher Normal School in 1999. In addition, it is affiliated 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 SKF (m-l). This organization was disbanded in 2007. In 2002, Badiou, together with Yves Duro and his former student Quentin Meillassoux, 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 Badiou as Manifesto of Philosophy, Ethics, Deleuze, Metapolitics, Being and Event have been translated into other languages. His short writings have also appeared in American and English periodicals. Unusually for a contemporary European philosopher, his work is gaining more and more attention in countries such as India, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Africa.

In 2005-2006, Badiou led a fierce controversy in Parisian intellectual circles, which was caused by the publication of his work “Circumstances 3: the use of the word “Jew”. The bickering spawned a series of articles in the French newspaper Le Monde and in the cultural magazine Les Temps.modernes. Linguist and Lacanian Jean-Claude Milner, former president of the International School of Philosophy, accused the author of anti-Semitism.

From 2014-2015, Badiou served as Honorary President of the Global Center for Advanced Study.

Key Ideas

Alain Badiou is one of the most significant philosophers of our time, and his political stance has attracted a great deal of attention in and outside the scientific community. The center of his system is an ontology based on pure mathematics - in particular, on the theory of sets and categories. Its vast complexity of structure relates to the history of modern French philosophy, German idealism and the works of antiquity. It consists of a series of negations, as well as what the author calls conditions: art, politics, science, and love. As Alain Badiou writes in Being and Event (2005), philosophy is that which “circulates between ontology (i.e. mathematics), contemporary theories of the subject, and its own history.” Since he was an outspoken critic of both analytical and postmodern schools, he seeks to reveal and analyze the potential of radical innovations (revolutions, inventions, transformations) in every situation.

Main work

The primary philosophical system developed by Alain Badiou is built in "The Logic of the Worlds: Being and Event II" and "The Immanences of Truth: Being and Event III". Around these works - in accordance with his definition of philosophy - numerous additional and tangential works are written. Although manysignificant books remain untranslated, some have found their readers. These are Deleuze: The Noise of Being (1999), Metapolitics (2005), The Meaning of Sarkozy (2008), The Apostle Paul: The Justification of Universalism (2003), The Second Manifesto of Philosophy (2011), Ethics: An Essay on the Understanding of Evil" (2001), "Theoretical Writings" (2004), "The Mysterious Relationship Between Politics and Philosophy" (2011), "The Theory of the Subject" (2009), "Plato's Republic: A Dialogue in 16 Chapters" (2012), " Controversy (2006), Philosophy and Event (2013), Praise of Love (2012), Conditions (2008), Century (2007), Wittgenstein's Anti-Philosophy (2011), Wagner's Five Lessons (2010), and The Adventure of French Philosophy (2012) and others. In addition to books, Badiou has 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 - the tourist's admiration for the diversity of customs and beliefs. In Ethics, Alain Badiou concludes that in the doctrine that each individual is defined by what makes him different, differences are leveled. Also, abandoning theological and scientific interpretations, the author places good and evil in the structure of human subjectivity, actions and freedom.

In the work "The Apostle Paul" Alain Badiou interprets the teaching and work of St. Paul as the spokesman for the pursuit of truth, whoopposed to ethical and social relations. He succeeded in creating a community subject to nothing but the Event - the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

“Manifesto of Philosophy” by Alain Badiou: summary by chapters

In his work, the author proposes to revive philosophy as a universal doctrine, conditioned by science, art, politics and love, which ensures their harmonious coexistence.

In the chapter "Possibility" the author wonders if philosophy has reached its end, since it alone claimed responsibility for Nazism and the Holocaust. This view is confirmed by the fact that it is the cause of the spirit of the times that gave birth to them. But what if Nazism is not an object of philosophical thought, but a political and historical product? Badiou suggests exploring the conditions under 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 truths. They are event based. Events are additions to situations and are described by single surplus names. Philosophy provides a conceptual space for such a name. It operates on the borders of situations and knowledge, in times of crisis, the upheaval of the established social order. That is, philosophy creates problems rather than solves them by constructing a space of thought in time.

In the chapter "Modernity" Badiou defines a "period" of philosophy when a certainconfiguration of the common space of thinking in 4 generic procedures of truth. He distinguishes the following sequences of configurations: mathematical (Descartes and Leibniz), political (Rousseau, Hegel) and poetic (from Nietzsche to Heidegger). But even with these temporary changes, the unchanging theme of the Subject can be seen. "Should we continue?" asks Alain Badiou in The Manifesto of Philosophy.

Summary of the next chapter - a summary of Heidegger's views in the late 1980s

In the Nihilism? the author examines Heidegger's comparison of global technology with nihilism. According to Badiou, our era is neither technological nor nihilistic.

Seams

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, i.e. science, politics, poetry or love. He calls this situation a "seam". For example, this was Marxism, because it placed philosophy and other truth procedures in political conditions.

Poetic "seams" are discussed in the "Age of Poets" chapter. 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 being, and that Heidegger sewed philosophy with poetry in order to equate it with scientific knowledge. Now, after the Age of Poets, it is necessary to get rid of this seam by conceptualizing disorientation.

Events

Authorargues that turning points allow Cartesian philosophy to continue. In this chapter of the Manifesto of Philosophy, Alain Badiou dwells briefly on each of the four generic conditions.

In mathematics, this is a distinguishable concept of an indistinguishable multiplicity, not limited by any properties of the language. Truth forms a hole in knowledge: it is impossible to determine a quantitative relationship between an infinite set and the many of its subsets. From this arises the nominalist, transcendent, and generic orientations of thought. The first recognizes the existence of named multitudes, the second tolerates the indistinguishable, but only as a sign of our ultimate inability to accept the point of view of a higher plurality. Generic thought accepts the challenge, it is militant, since truths are subtracted from knowledge and supported only by the loy alty of subjects. The name of the event of math is indistinguishable or generic plurality, purely plural being-in-truth.

In love, the return to philosophy lies through Lacan. From it the Duality is comprehended as a split of the One. It leads to generic multiplicity freed from knowledge.

In politics, these are the troubled events of 1965-1980: the Chinese Cultural Revolution, May 1968, Solidarity, the Iranian Revolution. Their political name is unknown. This demonstrates that the event is above the language. Politics is able to stabilize the naming of events. She conditions philosophy by making sense of how politically invented names for vague events relate to other events in science, love, and poetry.

In poetry, this is the work of Celan. Heasks to be released from the burden of the seam.

In the next chapter, the author asks three questions concerning modern philosophy: how to comprehend the Two beyond the dialectic and beyond the object, as well as the indistinguishable.

Platonic gesture

Badiou refers to Plato the understanding of the relationship of philosophy to its four conditions, as well as the fight against sophistry. He sees in great sophistry heterogeneous language games, doubts about the appropriateness of understanding the truth, rhetorical closeness to art, pragmatic and open politics or "democracy". It is no coincidence that getting rid of "seams" in philosophy goes through sophistry. She is symptomatic.

Modern anti-Platonism goes back to Nietzsche, according to which the truth is a lie for the benefit of some form of life. Nietzsche is also anti-Platonic in merging philosophy with poetry and abandoning mathematics. Badiou sees his task in curing Europe of anti-Platonism, the key to which is the concept of truth.

Philosopher proposes "Platonism of the plural". But what is truth, multiple in its being and therefore separated from language? What is truth if it turns out to be indistinguishable?

The gender plurality of Paul Cohen occupies the central place. In Being and the Event, Badiou showed that mathematics is an ontology (being as such achieves fulfillment in mathematics), but the event is non-being-as-such. "Generic" takes into account the internal consequences of the event replenishing the multiple situation. Truth is the result of multiple intersections of the validity of a situation that would otherwise be generic orindistinguishable.

Badiou identifies 3 criteria for the truth of plurality: its immanence, belonging to an event that complements the situation, and the failure of the existence of the situation.

The four procedures of truth are generic. Thus, we can return to the triad of modern philosophy - being, subject and truth. Being is mathematics, truth is the post-event being of the generic multiplicity, and the subject is the final moment of the generic procedure. Therefore, there are only creative, scientific, political or love subjects. Beyond that, there is only existence.

All events of our century are generic. This is what corresponds to the modern conditions of philosophy. Since 1973, politics has become egalitarian and anti-state, following the generic in man and adopting a communism of features. Poetry explores non-tool language. Mathematics embraces pure generic multiplicity without representational distinctions. Love announces the commitment to the pure Two, which makes the fact of the existence of men and women a generic truth.

Realization of the communist hypothesis

Much of Badiou's life and work was shaped by his dedication to the May 1968 student uprising in Paris. In The Meaning of Sarkozy, he writes that the task, after the negative experience of the socialist states and the ambiguous lessons of the Cultural Revolution and May 1968, is complex, unstable, experimental, and consists in implementing the communist hypothesis in a different form from the above. In his opinion, thisthe idea remains correct and there is no alternative to it. If it has to be dropped, then there is no point in doing anything in the order of collective action. Without the perspective of communism, nothing in the historical and political future can interest the philosopher.

Ontology

For Badiou, being is mathematically pure plurality, plurality without the One. Thus it is inaccessible to understanding, which is always based on counting as a whole, except for thought immanent in truth-procedure or set theory. This exception is of key importance. Set theory is a theory of representation, so ontology is a presentation. Ontology as a theory of sets, is the philosophy of the philosophy of Alain Badiou. For him, only set theory can write and think without the One.

According to the opening reflections in "Being and Event", philosophy is buried within the false choice between being as such, One or many. Like Hegel in his phenomenology of the spirit, Badiou 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 many, but between this pair and the third position they exclude: the non-One. In fact, this false pair is in itself an exhaustive horizon of possibility due to the lack of a third. The details of this thesis are developed in the first 6 parts of Being and Event. Its essential consequence is that there is no direct access to being as a pure multiplicity, since everything from within the situation seems to be one, and everything is a situation. Evidentthe paradox of this conclusion lies in the simultaneous confirmation of Truth and truths.

Like his German predecessors and Jacques Lacan, Badiou separates the Nothing beyond representation as non-being and as non-non-being, to which he gives the name "emptiness" because it denotes non-non-being, which precedes even the assignment of a number. Truth at the ontological level is what the French philosopher, borrowing again from mathematics, calls the common plural. In short, this is his ontological basis for the world of truths he constructed.

Perhaps more than the assertion that ontology is possible, Alain Badiou's philosophy differs from the assertion of Truth and truths. If the first is, strictly speaking, philosophical, then the second refers to conditions. Their connection is made clear by 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 sphere of Truth, inaccessible to artistic, scientific, political and loving thought and creation. Therefore, philosophy is determined by such conditions as the procedures of truth and ontology. The simplest way to formulate the seeming temporal paradox between philosophy and Truth and the truths of conditions is through Hegelian terminology: thoughts about conditions are particular, the category of Truth constructed is universal, and the truths of conditions, i.e., true procedures, are unique. In other words, philosophy takes statements about conditions and tests them,so to speak, in relation to ontology, and then builds from them that category that will serve as their measure - Truth. Thoughts about 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 is also provided by it, represent thoughts that cross the semblance of neutrality and naturalness of the current situation from the position of the assumption that, ontologically speaking, there is no One. In other words, truths are phenomena or phenomenal procedures that are true to the foundations of ontology. Truth as a philosophical category, on the other hand, is a deductible universal articulation of these singular thoughts, which Badiou calls generic procedures.

This process, stretched between a collision with emptiness as a cause, and the construction of a system not based on a predetermined reality of being, Badiou calls the subject. The subject itself includes a number of elements or moments - intervention, fidelity and coercion. More specifically, this process (given the nature of ontological truth) involves a sequence of subtractions that are always subtracted from any and all concepts of the One. Truth, therefore, is the process of subtracting truths.