In a discussion elsewhere (Facebook) on a possible philosophy Nobel, Loren Cano and I have been discussing the works of Alain Badiou. Badiou is still relatively unknown in the English speaking world - his main text Being and Event only appeared in English around 2007. Badiou is interesting, and holds the potential to be the first philosopher to excite me again since my love affair with Derrida in the 1980's. It seems that, by basing his philosophy on mathematics (set theory) in stead of language, he poses a way out of the impasse post-modernism presented to critical theory and builds a philosophy that demands an active and radical politics. For me it would be a relief to once again be philosophically justified in taking an absolutist stance against evil.
I have started reading Ethics: An Essay on the Understanding of Evil – with my history struggling with the demands of praxis, this seems to be the area that really interest me most, and I am as always a bit afraid of the mathematics (which should once again explain why I was never happy in that IT career). An article in a (now unfortunately lost somewhere) Dutch magazine about Mehdi Belhaj Kacem and the Julien Coupat-affair first caught my attention. MBK seems even more interesting, but I have decided to wait till the hype surrounding him has died down somewhat and first digest his roots, namely Badiou and Agamben.
I am not ready to give an informed opinion about either MBK or Badiou yet – without someone around for discussions it remained an idle interest far too long. But thanks to Loren’s challenge I have set myself the target of gaining an understanding of Badiou that would enable me to make an honest and considered appraisal. In the mean time, here is a review of MBK’s L'esprit du nihilisme by Alexander Galloway. It reflects on MBK’s debt to Badiou at some length, and has provided most of my current understanding of their thoughts.