Theoretical Writings

by Badiou, Alain; Brassier, Ray; Toscano, Alberto

• ISBN13: 9780826461469
• ISBN10: 0826461468
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-06-22
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

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

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

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

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

Author Biography

Alain Badiou teaches at the Ecole Normale Superieure and at the College International de Philosophie in Paris.

Table of Contents

List of Sources	p. viii
Editors' Note	p. ix
Author's Preface	p. xiii
Ontology is Mathematics
Mathematics and Philosophy: The Grand Style and the Little Style	p. 3
Philosophy and Mathematics: Infinity and the End of Romanticism	p. 21
The Question of Being Today	p. 39
Platonism and Mathematical Ontology	p. 49
The Being of Number	p. 59
One, Multiple, Multiplicities	p. 67
Spinoza's Closed Ontology	p. 81
The Subtraction of Truth
The Event as Trans-Being	p. 97
On Subtraction	p. 103
Truth: Forcing and the Unnameable	p. 119
Kant's Subtractive Ontology	p. 135
Eight Theses on the Universal	p. 143
Politics as Truth Procedure	p. 153
Logics of Appearance
Being and Appearance	p. 163
Notes Toward a Thinking of Appearance	p. 177
The Transcendental	p. 189
Hegel and the Whole	p. 221
Language, Thought, Poetry	p. 233
Notes	p. 243
Index of Concepts	p. 253
Index of Names	p. 255
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