Alain Badiou

Philosophy and Its Conditions

Edited by Gabriel Riera
Introduction by Gabriel Riera

Subjects: Literary Theory, French Studies, Continental Philosophy, Ethics
Series: SUNY series, Intersections: Philosophy and Critical Theory
Paperback : 9780791465042, 288 pages, August 2005
Hardcover : 9780791465035, 288 pages, August 2005

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Table of contents

Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction. Alain Badiou: The Event of Thinking
Gabriel Riera

PART I. MATHEMATICS = ONTOLOGY

1. On Alain Badiou’s Treatment of Category Theory in View of a Transitory Ontology
Norman Madarasz

2. The Ontological Dispute: Badiou, Heidegger, and Deleuze
Miguel de Beistegui

PART II. THE POEM

3. For an “Ethics of Mystery”: Philosophy and the Poem
Gabriel Riera

4. Unbreakable B’s: From Beckett and Badiou to the Bitter End of Affirmative Ethics
Jean-Michel Rabaté

5. The Mallarmé of Alain Badiou
Pierre Macherey

PART III. LOVE (Philosophy and Psychoanalysis)

6. Gai Savoir Sera: The Science of Love and the Insolence of Chance
Joan Copjec

7. Alain Badiou: Philosophical Outlaw
Juliet Flower MacCannell

8. Feminine Love and the Pauline Universal
Tracy McNulty

PART IV. POLITICS AND ETHICS

9. On the Ethics of Alain Badiou
Simon Critchley

10. Can Change Be Thought?: A Dialogue with Alain Badiou
Bruno Bosteels

Bibliography
Contributors
Index

An introduction to Badiou's philosophical thought and its implications for other humanistic disciplines and the social sciences.

Description

There is little doubt that Alain Badiou is one of the most challenging and controversial figures in contemporary philosophy. This volume of essays brings together leading commentators from both sides of the Atlantic to provide an introduction to Badiou's work through critical studies of his more productive and controversial ideas.

Over the course of three decades, his numerous and extensive texts have challenged traditional views on ontology, mathematics, aesthetics, literature, politics, ethics, philosophy, and sexual difference. His texts on Plato, Saint Paul, Pascal, Lacan, Althusser, Heidegger, MallarmeŒ, Pessoa, and Beckett are among the most perceptive and penetrating essays on contemporary philosophical and literary culture. In addition to providing insight into the basic conceptual apparatus of Badiou's philosophy, the essays also offer a more substantial critical assessment of the import of his main theses for different disciplines.

Gabriel Riera is Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature at Princeton University.