Badiou and Politics

Bruno Bosteels

Published by Duke University Press 2011

Badiou and Politics

Bruno Bosteels

In the series Post-Contemporary Interventions

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822394471

Overview
Contents

About this book

Examines the political thinking of French philosopher of Alain Badiou, whose theories of ontology and mathematics have set him apart from many of his post-structuralist contemporaries.

Author / Editor information

Bruno Bosteels is Professor of Romance Studies at Cornell University. He is the author of several books, including Alain Badiou, une trajectoire polémique and The Actuality of Communism, and the translator of Theory of the Subject and Wittgenstein’s Antiphilosophy, both by Alain Badiou.

Reviews

“If it is, by definition, unfair to expect critical theory to respond at the level of direct relevancy to the current conjuncture – if, indeed, such an imperative would dilute the very critical potency that makes the best critical writing transcend the immediate context of its composition – the circumstances of philosophical production and reception should, nonetheless, figure more in our reading, should trouble us more even as we learn from the ‘stars’ of the current philosophical firmament. Those circumstances – institutional, economic, academic – form the ambient frame through which Bosteels’ luminously written reflections on Badiou’s political philosophy should be read.” - Tom Eyers, Marx and Philosophy Review of Books

“Politics is a tough topic to tackle on any level. Badiou is a tough thinker to engage with. Bosteels unites, complements, and distinguishes both in his 436-page book working through the theories of a thinker who himself is grappling directly with politics: politics as an event, politics as being, and politics as one of four truth procedures defining the subject.” - Kevin D. Kuswa, Culture Machine

“Bruno Bosteels’s fine book restores the political and philosophical context of Alain Badiou’s lifework, and shows in particular how he has aimed at completing all the great unfinished problems of contemporary theory, particularly those of Althusser and Lacan. Not only does it serve as a useful introduction to a complex and many-faceted thinker, it also makes it possible for us to grasp some of the debates of the 1960s in a far more comprehensive way than before.”—Fredric R. Jameson, Duke University

“The most eagerly awaited book on Alain Badiou’s political thought yet written, Bruno Bosteels’s study is in a class of its own in every respect, remarkable as much for its enthusiasm and commitment as for its insight and precision, its depth of analysis and extraordinary breadth of reference. Badiou and Politics not only tracks the full course of Badiou’s own distinctive post-Maoist trajectory in meticulous detail, it also provides an incisive and illuminating discussion of virtually the whole field of emancipatory theoretical engagement after Sartre.”—Peter Hallward, author of Badiou: A Subject to Truth

“If it is, by definition, unfair to expect critical theory to respond at the level of direct relevancy to the current conjuncture – if, indeed, such an imperative would dilute the very critical potency that makes the best critical writing transcend the immediate context of its composition – the circumstances of philosophical production and reception should, nonetheless, figure more in our reading, should trouble us more even as we learn from the ‘stars’ of the current philosophical firmament. Those circumstances – institutional, economic, academic – form the ambient frame through which Bosteels’ luminously written reflections on Badiou’s political philosophy should be read.”

-- Tom Eyers Marx & Philosophy Review of Books

“Politics is a tough topic to tackle on any level. Badiou is a tough thinker to engage with. Bosteels unites, complements, and distinguishes both in his 436-page book working through the theories of a thinker who himself is grappling directly with politics: politics as an event, politics as being, and politics as one of four truth procedures defining the subject.”

-- Kevin D. Kuswa Culture Machine

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xxi
Introduction. Elements of Dialectical Materialism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. The Absent Cause Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	45
2. Lack and Destruction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	77
3. One Divides into Two Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	110
4. The Ontological Impasse Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	157
5. Forcing the Truth Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	174
6. Logics of Change Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	197
7. From Potentiality to Inexistence Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	226
8. For Lack of Politics Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	250
Conclusion. The Speculative Left Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	273
In dialogue with Alain Badiou Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	287
Appendix 1. Can Change Be Thought? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	289
Appendix 2. Beyond Formalization Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	318
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	351
Selected Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	407
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	423

Language: English
Publisher: Duke University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 464

eBook

Published: August 10, 2011
ISBN: 9780822394471