Alain Badiou

An abridged version of this article was presented at the 4th Platypus European Conference closing plenary panel discussion, “What is the Future of Socialism?,” with Boris Kagarlitsky (Institute of Globalization and Social Movements), Alex Demirovic (Rosa Luxemburg Foundation), Mark Osborne (Alliance for Workers’ Liberty; Momentum) and Hillel Ticktin (Critique journal), at Goldsmiths University in London on February 17, 2018. The liquidation of [Marxist] theory by dogmatization and thought taboos contributed to the bad practice… The interrelation of both moments [of theory and practice] is not settled once and for all but fluctuates historically… Those who chide theory [for being] anachronistic obey the topos of dismissing, as obsolete, what remains painful [because it was] thwarted… The fact that history has rolled over certain positions will be respected as a verdict on their truth-content only by those who agree with [Friedrich] Schiller that “world history is the world tribunal. [Read More]

Introduction ALAIN BADIOU CLAIMS that the twenty first century has yet to begin. We stand mired in the ideology of democratic materialism, which insists there are only bodies and language, and that we can persist without an idea. Our “atonal” environment of weak differences is riddled with a type of nihilism that crushes every master signifier, even those struggling to point in the direction of equality. Emancipatory politics is confronted with the nearly impossible task of going beyond the subject of the market, but with no clear means by which to do so. [Read More]

Panel discussion at the 3 annual Platypus Affiliated Society international convention, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, April 30, 2011. Audio Recording Your browser does not support the audio element Panelists Chris Cutrone (Platypus) Mike Ely (Kasama Project) Joseph Ramsey (Kasama Project) John Steele (Kasama Project) How does the prominence of Alain Badiou’s approach to communism today speak to the present historical moment and its emancipatory possibilities? [Read More]

A teach-in by Platypus member Chris Cutrone on April 12, 2011 at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Audio Recording Your browser does not support the audio element Description Alain Badiou’s recent book (2010) is titled with the phrase promoted by his and Slavoj Žižek’s work for the last few years, “the communist hypothesis.” Žižek has spoken of “the Badiou event” as opening new horizons for both philosophy and communism. [Read More]

A teach-in by Platypus member Chris Cutrone held on Tuesday, April 12, 2011, at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Audio Recording Your browser does not support the audio element Description Alain Badiou’s recent book (2010) is titled with the phrase promoted by his and Slavoj Žižek’s work for the last few years, “the communist hypothesis.” Žižek has spoken of “the Badiou event” as opening new horizons for both philosophy and communism. [Read More]

A panel discussion organized by the Platypus Affiliated Society, held on March 19, 2011, at Left Forum, Pace University. Audio Recording Your browser does not support the audio element Panelists Bruno Bosteels - Cornell University Chris Cutrone - School of the Art Institute of Chicago Nayi Duniya - Demarcations Journal Saul Thomas - University of Chicago, student Description Alain Badiou’s writings promoting what he calls the “communist hypothesis” have sparked growing interest and debate. [Read More]

Against Badiou ALAIN BADIOU’S RECENT BOOK (2010) is titled with the phrase promoted by his and Slavoj Žižek’s work for the last few years, “the communist hypothesis.”1 This is also the title of Badiou’s 2008 essay in New Left Review2 on the historical significance of the 2007 election of Nicolas Sarkozy to the French Presidency.3 There, Badiou explains his approach to communism as follows: What is the communist hypothesis? [Read More]

Review of ‘Communism: The Beginning of a New Stage’, a Manifesto from the RCP, USA; and Raymond Lotta, Nayi Duniya, and K. J. A., ‘Alain Badiou’s ‘Politics of Emancipation’: A Communism Locked Within the Confines of the Bourgeois World’ Demarcations 1 (Summer – Fall 2009). Communism: The Beginning of a New Stage. Lotta et al. is available online. Prologue DAVID BHOLAT ADOPTED, as epigraph for his essay “Beyond Equality,” the following passage from Joseph Schumpeter’s classic 1942 book Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy: [Read More]