Alain Badiou

French writer and philosopher · France · On the map · Writers · Born 1937 · age 89

Alain Badiou is a French philosopher, formerly chair of Philosophy at the École Normale Supérieure and founder of the faculty of Philosophy of the Université de Paris VIII with Gilles Deleuze, Michel Foucault and Jean-François Lyotard.

Alain Badiou is read about 489 times a day, in 42 languages.

A typical day, 30 days to 6 November 2026

The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 400 days, one point a day.

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A life in dates

2009“We live in a contradiction, a brutal state of affairs, profoundly inegalitarian - where all existence is evaluated in terms of money alone - is presented to us as ideal.”In their wordsFrom by , 2009. p.5Read the whole statement

2003“It must be said that today, at the end of its semantic evolution, the word 'terrorist' is an intrinsically propagandistic term. It has no neutral readability.”In their wordsFrom Philosophy and the 'war against terrorism in Infinite Thought: truth and the return of philosophy. London: Continuum, 2003. .Read the whole statement

2000“The heart of the question concerns the presumption of a universal human Subject, capable of reducing ethical issues to matters of human rights and humanitarian actions.”In their wordsChapter One, Section III: "Man Living animal or immortal singularity?"Read the whole statement

1988“… necessitating the unilateral choice of one of three orientations […] I would summarize the disjointed temporal multiple which organizes our site in the following manner:”In their wordsBeing and Event (1988)Read the whole statement

“If the establishment of the thesis 'mathematics is ontology' is the basis of this book, it is in no way its goal.”In their wordsIntroductionRead the whole statement

“Everything turns on mastering the gap between the presupposition (that must be rejected) of a being of the one and the thesis of its 'there is'.”In their wordsMeditation One: The One and the Multiple: a priori conditions of any possible ontologyRead the whole statement

1937Born17 January 1937

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Alain Badiou

4 statements, newest first

In my view, only those who have had the courage to work through Lacan's anti-philosophy without faltering deserve to be called 'contemporary philosophers'.
2004 · From Vérité: forçage et innomable, translated as Truth: Forcing and the Unnameable in Theoretical Writings. London: Continuum, 2004. ., Own words
The cinema is a place of intrinsic indiscernibility between art and non-art.
1999 · From Considérations sur l'état actuel du cinéma (1999), translated as Philosophy and Cinema in Infinite Thought: truth and the return of, Own words
I then arrived at the certainty that it was necessary to posit that mathematics writes that which, of being itself, is pronounceable in the field of a pure theory of the Multiple.
1988 · Introduction, Own words

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About this person

Badiou's work is heavily informed by philosophical applications of mathematics, in particular set theory and category theory. Badiou's "Being and Event" project considers the concepts of being, truth, event and the subject defined by a rejection of linguistic relativism seen as typical of postwar French thought. Unlike his peers, Badiou believes in the idea of universalism and truth. His work is notable for his widespread applications of various conceptions of indifference. Badiou has been involved in a number of political organisations, and regularly comments on political events. Badiou argues for a return of communism as a political force.

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France