Engagement and transcendence: the militant philosophy of Alain Badiou

Abstract

Alain Badiou's thought combines reflexions on notions of the event, subject, truth and being, in a system that is among the most innovative in Western philosophy today. Influenced both by classical philosophy and by modern French theorists such as Althusser and Lacan, Badiou insists nevertheless that philosophy must learn to be a tool that is subordinate to, albeit uniquely placed to understand, developments in the crucial realms of science, art, emancipatory politics and love. His theory is also shaped by many years of political activism, broadly speaking in a spirit of faithfulness to the legacy of May 1968. All of this constitutes a considerable departure from much contemporary philosophy, which, in one way or another, tends to confirm the legitimacy of the established order. However, despite Badiou's intention to explain change in the form of events and their consequences, his theory does not seem able to account adequately for movement, which is a serious shortcoming.

Notes

For abbreviations, see above. I have quoted the original French text where this is available, and the English text either where the original publication is in English or where the original French is not available.

HALLWARD, P., Badiou: a Subject to Truth (University of Minnesota Press, 2003), p. xxiii.

Badiou's novels are: Almagestes (Seuil, 1964), Portulans (Seuil, 1967) and Calme bloc ici‐bas (POL, 1997); the plays are Ahmed le subtil (Actes Sud, 1994), Ahmed se fâche, suivi par Ahmed philosophe (Actes Sud, 1995) and Citrouilles (Actes Sud, 1995); and the libretto is entitled L'Écharpe rouge (1979).

An exception to this rule is RAMOND, C. (ed.), Alain Badiou: Penser le multiple (L'Harmattan, 2002). Useful introductions to Badiou's work are: BARKER, J., Alain Badiou. A Critical Introduction (Pluto, 2002); FELTHAM, O. and CLEMENS, J., ‘An introduction to Alain Badiou’s philosophy', in FELTHAM and CLEMENS (eds), Infinite Thought. Truth and the Return to Philosophy (Continuum, 2003), pp. 39–57; HALLWARD, P., ‘Generic sovereignty: the philosophy of Alain Badiou’, Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities, 3, 3 (1998), pp. 87–109; LECERCLE, J.‐J., ‘Cantor, Lacan, Mao, Beckett, même combat: the philosophy of Alain Badiou’, Radical Philosophy, 93 (January–February 1999), pp. 6–13. The most comprehensive book published to date on Badiou's philosophy is HALLWARD, Badiou: a Subject to Truth, where the author analyses Badiou's thought in detail and suggests some problems with certain aspects of it.

The following titles by Badiou have already been translated and published in English: On Beckett, ed. and trans. N. POWER and A. TOSCANO, with B. BOSTEELS (Clinamen, 2003); Ethics: An Essay on the Understanding of Evil, trans. P. Hallward (Verso, 2001); Gilles Deleuze: The Clamour of Being, trans. L. Burchill (University of Minnesota Press, 2000); Manifesto for Philosophy, trans. N. Madarasz (SUNY Press, 1999). The following are currently in press or forthcoming within the next two years: Being and Event, trans. O. Feltham (Continuum); Theoretical Writings, trans. and ed. A. TOSCANO and R. BRASSIER (Continuum); Handbook of Inaesthetics, trans. A. Toscano (Stanford University Press); St. Paul: The Foundation of Universalism, trans. R. Brassier (Stanford University Press); The Century/Le Siècle, trans A. Toscano with responses by A. Toscano and S. [Zbreve]i[zbreve]iek (Seuil/Verso, bilingual text); Abrégé de métapolitique, trans. J. Barker (Verso).

In an article to be published in due course I address the more explicitly political aspects of Badiou's theory, and look briefly at his political activism as well. Badiou's most explicitly political texts are: Peut‐on penser la politique? (Seuil, 1985); D'un désastre obscur (Droit, État, Politique) (Aube, 1991); and Abrégé de métapolitique (Seuil, 1998). See also BADIOU and HALLWARD, P., ‘Politics and philosophy: an interview with Alain Badiou’, Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities, 3, 3 (1998), pp. 113–32; HALLWARD, P., ‘Badiou’s politics: equality and justice', Culture Machine, http://culturemachine.tees.ac.uk/Cmach/Backissues/j004/Articles/hallward.htm [22pp., consulted 4 July 2003].

Badiou's discussion is in ‘Philosophy and desire’, in FELTHAM and CLEMENS, Infinite Thought, pp. 39–57. As the editors suggest (p. 57), the title of the essay can be taken as meaning both what philosophy most needs or desires, as well as an assertion of a need or desire for philosophy.

By ‘compossibilité’, Badiou means ‘possibility in common’. He also comments: ‘C’est pourquoi je déterminerais la philosophie comme la fixation de l'espace de compossibilité de ses conditions, étant entendu qu'une compossibilité n'est ni une totalisation, ni une archtecture générale, ni le suspens de tout cela à une clef de voûte édifiante, ni un discours ultime … bref elle vise à entretenir à son temps un rapport de pensée tel que ce rapport est universalisible' (EB, p. 8).

BADIOU, ‘Que pense le poème?’, pp. 214–15; quoted by Peter Hallward in Badiou, p. 197.

Any further discussion of Badiou's relationship with Marxism is beyond the scope of this article. Suffice it to say here, as does Eustache Kouvélakis, that in the context of contemporary French philosophy, to make frequent reference to Lenin, Mao and Saint‐Just displays a tremendous ability to ‘penser contre son temps’; KOUVELAKIS, E., ‘La politique dans ses limites, ou les paradoxes d’Alain Badiou', Actuel Marx, 28 (PUF, 2000), p. 47.

See, for example, FOUCAULT, M., ‘Power, right, truth’, in Power/Knowledge (Harvester, 1980, ed. C. Gordon), pp. 92–108.

Because of the particular way in which Badiou uses the word fidélité (that is, to an event), I have, like others, chosen to translate it as ‘fidelity’ rather than ‘faithfulness’.

Put slightly differently: ‘Something must happen, in order for there to be something new. Even in our personal lives, there must be an encounter, there must be something which cannot be calculated, predicted or managed, there must be a break based only on chance …’; BADIOU and HALLWARD, ‘Politics and philosophy’, p. 124.

‘… dans le christianisme, et lui seul, se dit que l’essence de la vérité suppose l'ultra‐un événementiel, et que s'y rapporter ne relève pas de la contemplation—ou connaissance immobile—mais de l'intervention. Car au cœur du christianisme il y a cet événement, situé et exemplaire, qu'est la mort du fils de Dieu sur la croix … Tous les paramètres de la doctrine de l'événement sont ainsi disposés dans le christianisme …' (EE, p. 235).

[Zbreve]I[Zbreve]IEK, S., ‘The politics of truth, or, Alain Badiou as a reader of St Paul’, in [Zbreve]I[Zbreve]IEK, The Ticklish Subject (Verso, 1999).

‘En ce qui concerne l’événement je dirais qu'il est une supplémentation hasardeuse, quelque chose qui au regard d'une figure instituée de l'être, et que j'appelle une “situation”, vient “en plus”, et qui est à prendre au sens fort, au sens ou il n'est pas décidable de savoir si ça est ou si ça n'est pas, en sorte que pour trancher quant à l'événement il faudra précisément une décision. Cette décision du point de l'indécidable est ce qui fixe le statut de l'inscription de l'événement dans l'être par le pari, l'aléa, les gestes de l'inscription' (EB, p. 9; italics in original).

BADIOU and HALLWARD, ‘Politics and philosophy’, p. 124.

Ibid., p. 129.

DARWIN, C., The Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection (Penguin, 1968). Darwin discusses the first two of these generalisations in both Chapter I, Variation Under Domestication, and Chapter II, Variation Under Nature. He deals with the third generalisation in Chapter III, Struggle for Existence.

Ibid., pp.169–70.

MARX, K., ‘Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy’, in K. MARX and F. ENGELS, Collected Works (Lawrence and Wishart, 1968), pp. 181–2.

‘L’idee d'un bouleversement dont l'origine serait un état de la totalité est imaginaire. Toute action transformative radicale s'origine en un point, qui est, a l'intérieur d'une situation, un site événementiel' (EE 197).

See, for example, BALIBAR, É., La crainte des masses (Galilée, 1997); RANCIÈRE, J., La mésentente. Politique et philosophie (Galilée, 1995).