Think Again: Alain Badiou and the Future of Philosophy PETER HALLWARD, Editor Continuum THINK AGAIN ALAIN BADIOU AND THE FUTURE OF PHILOSOPHY Also available from Continuum: Theoretical Writings, Alain Badiou Infinite Thought: Truth and the Return of Philosophy, Alain Badiou THINK AGAIN ALAIN BADIOU AND THE FUTURE OF PHILOSOPHY Edited by PETER HALLWARD Continuum The Tower Building 15 East 26th Street 11 York Road New York London SE1 7NX NY 10010 # Peter Hallward and contributors 2004 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: HB: 0-8264-5906-4 PB: 0-8264-5907-2 Typeset by YHT Ltd,London Printedand bound inGreat Britainby MPGBooks Ltd,Bodmin,Cornwall This book is dedicated to the memory of one of Badiou’s most brilliant readers to date, Sam Gillespie (1970–2003). This page intentionally left blank CONTENTS Acknowledgements ix Notes on Contributors x Abbreviations xiii Introduction: ‘Consequences of Abstraction’ 1 peter hallward 1 The History of Truth: Alain Badiou in French Philosophy 21 etienne balibar 2 Philosophy Without Conditions 39 jean-luc nancy 3 Nihil Unbound: Remarks on Subtractive Ontology and Thinking Capitalism 50 ray brassier 4 Some Remarks on the Intrinsic Ontology of Alain Badiou 59 jean-toussaint desanti 5 Badiou and Deleuze on the One and the Many 67 todd may 6 Badiou and Deleuze on the Ontology of Mathematics 77 daniel w. smith 7 Alain Badiou and the Miracle of the Event 94 daniel bensa¨ıd 8 States of Grace: The Excess of the Demand in Badiou’s Ethics of Truths 106 peter dews 9 An Ethics of Militant Engagement 120 ernesto laclau 10 Communism as Separation 138 alberto toscano 11 On the Subject of the Dialectic 150 bruno bosteels 12 From Purification to Subtraction: Badiou and the Real 165 slavoj zˇizˇek 13 What if the Other is Stupid? Badiou and Lacan on ‘Logical Time’ 182 ed pluth and dominiek hoens viii CONTENTS 14 The Fifth Condition 191 alenka zupancˇicˇ 15 What Remains of Fidelity after Serious Thought 202 alex garc´ıa du¨ttmann 16 Badiou’s Poetics 208 jean-jacques lecercle 17 Aesthetics, Inaesthetics, Anti-Aesthetics 218 jacques rancie`re Afterword: Some Replies to a Demanding Friend 232 alain badiou Notes 238 Bibliography 259 Index 267 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The essays by Etienne Balibar, Jean-Luc Nancy and Jacques Rancie`re first appeared in Alain Badiou: Penser le multiple, edited by Charles Ramond (Paris: L’Harmattan,2002);I’mgratefultoCharlesRamondforhiscarefulpreparation of these texts. Daniel Bensa¨ıd’s contribution first appeared as a chapter of his bookRe´sistances:Essaidetaupologieg´ene´rale(Paris:Fayard,2001).Jean-Toussaint Desanti’s essay was first published in Les Temps modernes 526 (May 1990).