Alain Badiou facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Alain Badiou
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Alain Badiou, 2012
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| Born | 17 January 1937 Rabat, French Morocco
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| Education | École Normale Supérieure (B.A., M.A.) |
| Era | Contemporary philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | Continental philosophy Maoism Marxism Modern Platonism |
| Institutions | University of Reims University of Paris VIII École normale supérieure |
| Academic advisors | Georges Canguilhem |
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Main interests
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Set theory, category theory, topos theory, history of philosophy, philosophy of mathematics, metapolitics, metaphysics/ontology, psychoanalysis |
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Notable ideas
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Event, ontology of the multiple, ontology is mathematics, the One is not, count-as-one, metapolitics |
Alain Badiou (born January 17, 1937) is a French thinker and writer. He used to be a professor of philosophy at a famous school called the École Normale Supérieure (ENS). He also helped start the philosophy department at the Université de Paris VIII.
Badiou's ideas often use concepts from mathematics, especially set theory. He believes in universal truths, meaning some ideas are true for everyone, everywhere. He has also been active in different political groups and often shares his thoughts on current events.
Contents
About Alain Badiou
Alain Badiou was born in 1937. His father, Raymond Badiou, was a mathematician and fought in the French Resistance during World War II.
Alain Badiou studied at the Lycée Louis-Le-Grand and then at the École Normale Supérieure from 1955 to 1960. He wrote his master's thesis on the philosopher Baruch Spinoza.
Early Career and Political Involvement
From 1963, Badiou taught at a high school in Reims. He became good friends with playwright and philosopher François Regnault.
He later moved to the University of Reims and then to the University of Paris VIII in 1969. Badiou was involved in politics from a young age. He was a founding member of the Unified Socialist Party (PSU). This party worked to help Algeria gain independence from France.
In 1964, he wrote his first novel, Almagestes. In 1967, he joined a study group led by Louis Althusser, another important thinker. Badiou was also influenced by the ideas of Jacques Lacan.
Student Uprisings and Later Work
The student protests in France in May 1968 made Badiou even more committed to left-wing politics. He joined groups like the Union des communistes de France marxiste-léniniste [fr] (UCFml), a Maoist organization.
At the University of Paris VIII, Badiou had many debates with other professors like Gilles Deleuze and Jean-François Lyotard. He felt their ideas were moving away from a scientific approach to Marxism.
In the 1980s, Badiou wrote more complex philosophical books, such as Théorie du sujet (1982) and his major work, Being and Event (1988). Even though some ideas he followed became less popular, Badiou continued to refer to Marxism and psychoanalysis in his later writings.
He started his current teaching position at the ENS in 1999. He also works with other groups, like the Collège International de Philosophie. He helped start L'Organisation Politique in 1985 with friends from the Maoist UCFml. This group stopped its activities in 2007. Badiou still sees Maoism in a positive light.
In 2002, Badiou co-founded the Centre International d'Etude de la Philosophie Française Contemporaine. He has also written plays, such as Ahmed le Subtil.
Over the last ten years, many of Badiou's books have been translated into English. His work is also gaining attention in countries like India and South Africa. In 2014–15, Badiou was the Honorary President at The Global Center for Advanced Studies.
Key Ideas
Badiou uses several important ideas in his philosophy. He studies old philosophical texts carefully. His way of thinking is part of a long tradition in French academic philosophy. He wants to show that his ideas about truth can be used to understand art, history, and science.
One way to think about Badiou's philosophy is as a modern version of Platonism. This means he believes in unchanging truths that exist beyond our everyday world.
Truth and Events
For Badiou, philosophy is connected to four main areas: art, love, politics, and science. He calls these "truth procedures" because they each create their own kinds of truths.
Badiou believes that philosophy should not get stuck on just one of these areas. If it does, he thinks it leads to a "disaster" for philosophy. Instead, philosophy should explore how these different truth procedures work together.
Badiou has a very strict idea of truth. He thinks truths are always the same, everywhere and always. But he also believes that truths are built through processes. He says that a truth is usually hidden unless there's a sudden break in how things normally are. He calls this break an "event."
When someone sees an event and stays true to what they've seen, they can then introduce this truth into the world. For Badiou, a person becomes a "subject" by being faithful to the truth of an event. This means being a subject is not something you are born with, but something you become.
Being and Event
Badiou's main ideas come from his book Being and Event. In this book, he tries to connect the idea of a "subject" (a thinking person) with how things exist (ontology). He uses set theory, a branch of mathematics, to explain his ideas.
Badiou believes that the problem with old philosophy is that it sees many different things existing, but thinks of "being" itself as just one thing. His solution is to say that "the One is not." This is why he uses set theory, which helps think about things as many different parts, not just one whole.
The Event and the Subject
Badiou uses ideas from set theory to explore how something new and unexpected, an "event," can appear. He says that an event is a truth caused by a hidden part of existence that suddenly appears. This part is so new that our usual language and understanding can't fully grasp it.
He identifies four areas where a person can experience an event: love, science, politics, and art. When someone stays true to an event in these areas, they are doing a "generic procedure." This process is experimental and can change how we understand the world. Through this loyalty, truth can appear.
Badiou believes that politics is not just about politicians. It's about taking action based on what's happening now and the sudden changes that occur. Love also has this quality of becoming "new." Even in science, new discoveries often come from unexpected guesses.
He argues that a truth comes before we can prove it. For example, when Galileo first talked about inertia, he couldn't fully prove it yet. It took other thinkers like Descartes and Newton to fully develop the idea.
Badiou connects his political activism with his philosophy. He is skeptical of traditional politics and believes in singular, specific truths that can lead to big changes or "revolutions."
L'Organisation Politique
Alain Badiou was a founding member of a French political group called L'Organisation Politique. It was active from 1985 until 2007. This group focused on direct action by people on issues like immigration, labor, and housing. They believed that undocumented migrants should be seen as workers, not just immigrants.
Works
Philosophy Books
- Le Concept de modèle (1969)
- Théorie du sujet (1982)
- L'Être et l'Événement (1988)
- Manifeste pour la philosophie (1989)
- Le Nombre et les Nombres (1990)
- Conditions (1992)
- L'Éthique (1993)
- Deleuze (1997)
- Saint Paul. La Fondation de l'universalisme (1997)
- Petit manuel d'inesthétique (1998)
- Le Siècle (2005)
- Logiques des mondes. L'être et l'événement, 2 (2006)
- Petit panthéon portatif (2008)
- Éloge de l'Amour (2009)
- La République de Platon (2012)
Literature and Drama
- Almagestes (1964)
- Portulans (1967)
- L'Écharpe rouge (1979)
- Ahmed le subtil (1994)
- Ahmed philosophe, followed by Ahmed se fâche (1995)
- Les Citrouilles, a comedy (1996)
Political Essays
- Circonstances 1: Kosovo, 11 septembre, Chirac/Le Pen (2003)
- Circonstances 2: Irak, foulard, Allemagne/France (2004)
- Circonstances 3: Portées du mot "juif" (2005)
- Circonstances 4: De quoi Sarkozy est-il le nom ? (2007)
- Circonstances 5: L'Hypothèse communiste (2009)
- Circonstances 6: Le Réveil de l'Histoire (2011)
- Circonstances 7: Sarkozy : pire que prévu, les autres : prévoir le pire (2012)
Images for kids
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Alain Badiou, 2012
See also
In Spanish: Alain Badiou para niños
