Alain Badiou

From No Subject
(Redirected from Badiou, Alain)
Jump to navigation Jump to search


Alain Badiou
Identity
Lifespan 1937–
Nationality French
Epistemic Position
Tradition Continental philosophy, Marxism, Structuralism, Post-structuralism
Methodology Philosophy, Mathematics, Political Theory
Fields Ontology, Logic, Psychoanalysis, Political Thought
Conceptual Payload
Core Concepts
Event, Truth, Subject, Fidelity, Ontology as Mathematics
Associated Concepts Event, Subject, Truth, Fidelity, Void, Forcing, Matheme, Antiphilosophy
Key Works L'Être et l'événement (1988); Logiques des mondes (2006); Manifeste pour la philosophie (1989); Saint Paul: The Foundation of Universalism (1997)
Theoretical Cluster Subjectivity, Truth, Event, Structure
Psychoanalytic Relation
Badiou’s formalization of the subject, his reworking of the concept of the event, and his engagement with Lacanian categories have provided psychoanalysis with new ontological and logical frameworks. His reading of Lacan, especially regarding the real and the matheme, has influenced both the theoretical self-understanding of psychoanalysis and its articulation with politics and ontology. Badiou’s polemics against “antiphilosophy” and his universalist orientation have also provoked significant debate within psychoanalytic circles.
To Lacan Direct engagement; extensive commentary on Lacan’s logic, the real, and the matheme; participant in Lacanian seminars.
To Freud Indirect; Freud’s theory of the unconscious is reinterpreted through Badiou’s ontology of the subject and event.
Referenced By
Slavoj Žižek, Jacques-Alain Miller, Éric Laurent, Joan Copjec
Lineage
Influences
Louis Althusser, Jacques Lacan, Georg Cantor, Plato, Jean-Paul Sartre, Georges Canguilhem
Influenced
Slavoj Žižek, Quentin Meillassoux, Bruno Bosteels, Adrian Johnston, contemporary Lacanian theorists

Alain Badiou (born 1937) is a French philosopher whose work in ontology, logic, and political theory has exerted a foundational influence on contemporary psychoanalysis, particularly through his sustained engagement with the thought of Jacques Lacan. Badiou’s formalization of the subject, his theory of the event, and his reinterpretation of truth procedures have provided psychoanalytic theory—especially in the Lacanian tradition—with new conceptual resources for thinking subjectivity, the real, and the relation between structure and change.

Intellectual Context and Biography

Early Formation

Badiou was educated at the École Normale Supérieure (ENS) in Paris, where he studied philosophy and developed a strong interest in mathematics.[1] His early intellectual formation was shaped by the structuralist and Marxist milieu of postwar France, particularly the influence of Louis Althusser, under whom he participated in study groups.[2] Badiou’s engagement with mathematics, especially set theory, would later become central to his philosophical project.

Major Turning Points

The political upheavals of May 1968 marked a decisive moment in Badiou’s intellectual and political trajectory, reinforcing his commitment to revolutionary Marxism and leading to his involvement in Maoist organizations.[3] In the late 1960s and 1970s, Badiou joined the faculty at the experimental University of Paris VIII (Vincennes–Saint Denis), where he engaged in debates with contemporaries such as Gilles Deleuze and Jean-François Lyotard.[4] His encounter with Jacques Lacan—both through Lacan’s seminars and direct intellectual exchange—became a crucial influence, especially as Badiou sought to formalize the logic of the subject.[5]

Core Concepts

Event

Badiou’s concept of the event designates a radical rupture within a given situation, an occurrence that cannot be accounted for by the existing structure or knowledge.[6] Drawing on set theory, Badiou defines the event as that which is “not-being-qua-being,” a supplement to the situation that opens the possibility for new truths. The event is central to Badiou’s reworking of subjectivity, as it is only through fidelity to an event that a subject emerges.

Truth and Fidelity

For Badiou, truth is not a correspondence to reality but a process that unfolds through a subject’s fidelity to an event.[7] Truths are universal yet situated, irreducible to knowledge or opinion. Fidelity is the subjective process by which an individual maintains commitment to the consequences of an event, thereby producing a new situation. This logic of fidelity resonates with psychoanalytic notions of the act and the traversal of fantasy.

Subject

Badiou reconceptualizes the subject as the operator of fidelity to an event, rather than as a psychological or empirical entity.[8] The subject is not pre-given but is constituted in the process of truth, echoing Lacan’s anti-humanist and structuralist rethinking of subjectivity. Badiou’s subject is “a local configuration of a generic procedure,” structurally homologous to the Lacanian subject of the unconscious.

Ontology as Mathematics

Badiou’s philosophical project is grounded in the thesis that ontology is mathematics, specifically set theory.[9] For Badiou, mathematics provides the only adequate language for thinking being qua being, while philosophy articulates the consequences of this ontological axiom. This formalization has significant implications for psychoanalysis, particularly in relation to Lacan’s use of mathematical logic and the matheme.

Relation to Psychoanalysis

Badiou’s relation to psychoanalysis is both direct and structural, centering on his engagement with Jacques Lacan and, to a lesser extent, Sigmund Freud. Badiou attended Lacan’s seminars and participated in the intellectual circles surrounding the École Freudienne de Paris.[10] He has written extensively on Lacan, especially in Theory of the Subject and Being and Event, where he analyzes Lacan’s logic of the signifier, the real, and the matheme.[11]

Badiou’s formalization of the subject draws directly on Lacanian categories, particularly the distinction between the subject of the unconscious and the subject of the act.[12] He reinterprets the Lacanian real as the site of the event, the point at which the symbolic order is interrupted by that which cannot be integrated.[13] Badiou’s use of mathematical logic and set theory echoes Lacan’s own turn to topology and the matheme as means of formalizing psychoanalytic concepts.[14]

While Freud is less frequently cited, Badiou’s theory of the subject and event can be read as a structural transformation of Freudian notions of trauma, repetition, and the drive.[15] The mediation of Lacan is crucial here: Badiou’s reading of Freud is always filtered through Lacan’s structuralist and formalist reinterpretation.

Reception in Psychoanalytic Theory

Badiou’s work has been widely discussed and debated within psychoanalytic theory, especially among Lacanian analysts and theorists.[16] Slavoj Žižek has engaged Badiou’s concepts of the event, subject, and truth in his own attempts to rethink the political implications of psychoanalysis.[17] Jacques-Alain Miller and other members of the Lacanian field have both appropriated and critiqued Badiou’s formalization of psychoanalytic categories, particularly his universalist orientation and his polemics against “antiphilosophy.”[18]

Badiou’s influence is evident in the work of theorists such as Joan Copjec, Éric Laurent, and Adrian Johnston, who have drawn on his ontology and logic to rethink the status of the subject, the act, and the real in psychoanalysis.[19] Debates persist regarding the compatibility of Badiou’s mathematical ontology with the Freudian-Lacanian emphasis on language, desire, and the symptom.[20]

Key Works

  • L'Être et l'événement (Being and Event, 1988): Badiou’s magnum opus, in which he develops his ontology of the event, the subject, and truth procedures. The work’s engagement with Lacanian logic and the formalization of the subject has made it a touchstone for psychoanalytic theory.[21]
  • Théorie du sujet (Theory of the Subject, 1982): Explores the dialectic of subjectivity and structure, drawing extensively on Lacan’s categories and the logic of the signifier.[22]
  • Logiques des mondes (Logics of Worlds, 2006): Extends the ontology of Being and Event to the problem of appearance and worlds, with implications for the psychoanalytic understanding of the symbolic and the real.[23]
  • Manifeste pour la philosophie (Manifesto for Philosophy, 1989): Articulates Badiou’s defense of philosophy against antiphilosophy, with critical reflections on psychoanalysis.[24]
  • Saint Paul: La fondation de l'universalisme (Saint Paul: The Foundation of Universalism, 1997): Uses the figure of Saint Paul to explore the logic of the event and universal truth, themes central to psychoanalytic debates on subjectivity and the act.[25]

Influence and Legacy

Badiou’s influence on psychoanalysis is both direct and structural. His formalization of the subject and event has provided psychoanalytic theory with new tools for thinking the emergence of the subject, the logic of the act, and the status of the real.[26] His engagement with Lacan has deepened the dialogue between philosophy and psychoanalysis, while his polemics against antiphilosophy have provoked critical reflection on the limits and possibilities of psychoanalytic discourse.[27] Beyond psychoanalysis, Badiou’s work has shaped contemporary debates in political theory, ontology, and the philosophy of mathematics, influencing a generation of thinkers committed to the renewal of universalism and the rethinking of subjectivity.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Hallward, Peter. Badiou: A Subject to Truth. University of Minnesota Press, 2003.
  2. ↑ Hallward, Peter. Badiou: A Subject to Truth.
  3. ↑ Brassier, Ray. "Introduction: Alain Badiou and the Persistence of the Dialectic." In Theoretical Writings, Continuum, 2004.
  4. ↑ Hallward, Peter. Badiou: A Subject to Truth.
  5. ↑ Bosteels, Bruno. Badiou and Politics. Duke University Press, 2011.
  6. ↑ Badiou, Alain. Being and Event. Trans. Oliver Feltham. Continuum, 2005.
  7. ↑ Badiou, Alain. Ethics: An Essay on the Understanding of Evil. Verso, 2001.
  8. ↑ Badiou, Alain. Logics of Worlds. Trans. Alberto Toscano. Continuum, 2009.
  9. ↑ Badiou, Alain. Being and Event.
  10. ↑ Bosteels, Bruno. Badiou and Politics.
  11. ↑ Badiou, Alain. Theory of the Subject. Trans. Bruno Bosteels. Continuum, 2009.
  12. ↑ Badiou, Alain. Theory of the Subject.
  13. ↑ Badiou, Alain. Being and Event.
  14. ↑ Seminar XX: Encore (1972–1973)
  15. ↑ Johnston, Adrian. Badiou, Žižek, and Political Transformations: The Cadence of Change. Northwestern University Press, 2009.
  16. ↑ Bosteels, Bruno. Badiou and Politics.
  17. ↑ Žižek, Slavoj. The Ticklish Subject: The Absent Centre of Political Ontology. Verso, 1999.
  18. ↑ Bosteels, Bruno. Badiou and Politics.
  19. ↑ Johnston, Adrian. Badiou, Žižek, and Political Transformations.
  20. ↑ Hallward, Peter. Badiou: A Subject to Truth.
  21. ↑ Badiou, Alain. Being and Event.
  22. ↑ Badiou, Alain. Theory of the Subject.
  23. ↑ Badiou, Alain. Logics of Worlds.
  24. ↑ Badiou, Alain. Manifesto for Philosophy. SUNY Press, 1999.
  25. ↑ Badiou, Alain. Saint Paul: The Foundation of Universalism. Stanford University Press, 2003.
  26. ↑ Bosteels, Bruno. Badiou and Politics.
  27. ↑ Hallward, Peter. Badiou: A Subject to Truth.
Retrieved from "https://nosubject.com/index.php?title=Alain_Badiou&oldid=66346"