Alain Badiou

He is one of the most stimulating and radical of contemporary philosophers (radical, in the literal sense of “getting to the root” of things). His political and philosophical quest focuses on ways of reinventing policies of emancipation which do not centre on the state, but rather on the creation of new possibilities for living and the radical affirmation of autonomy and equality. In this sense, Badiou seeks to fight against philosophical relativism, scepticism, the end of principles, a certain notion of differences directed against equality, etc. That is his political and philosophical fight: to invent new ideas, a new theory of the subject, of the truth, of universalism, slicing through the Gordian knot which today instructs predominant ideas, specifically, the alternative between the power of the political and financial oligarchies and the power of ancestors and ethnic groups. He strives against philosophical relativism, scepticism, the end of principles and the notion of differences. Author of numerous works, including Théorie du sujet (1982), L’Être et l’Événement (1988), Manifeste pour la philosophie (1989), L’Éthique (1993), Petit manuel d’inesthétique (1998) and Circonstances 2 (2004).