Beyond Miracle: Event, Idea and Organization in the Political Thought of Alain Badiou

ABSTRACT

This article aims to provide a response to the critique of the idea of the ‘event’ that forms the backbone of Alain Badiou’s studies. Accordingly, it argues that Badiou’s event is based on a materialist foundation and that this foundation should be considered together with the concept of ‘Idea’ and ‘organisation.’ It focuses on how the idea of the event, interwoven with the concept of Idea and organisation, can provide a way to change the order of the world or eliminate the established order. Thus, it is argued that the centrality of the concept of event in Badiou’s thought gains importance with the Idea and organisation, and it is stated that it is not possible to consider the event independently of historical struggles. At this point, the main problem of this article takes shape: What is the relationship between the concept of the event and social struggles? In this direction, the main argument of the article is that the concept of the event in Badiou’s thought does not have a miraculous or supernatural dimension, but that, on the contrary, this concept acquires a concrete meaning when it is related to social and historical riots and the communist Idea.

KEYWORDS:

• Politics
• event
• historical riots
• Idea
• organisation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. When you say ‘Mubarak, get out!’ or when your slogan is ‘Defeat Macron,’ that is not enough. To be sure, you are becoming part of a mass protest, you are declaring your refusal to be a mere waste product … But you are not constructing a work – in this case, a politics’ (Badiou, 2022a, p. 90).