Alain Badiou’s Anti-Philosophy Seminars: Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, Lacan

Abstract

Alain Badiou, the most widely read living French philosopher, turned his attention to the theme of “anti-philosophy” and the figure of the “anti-philosopher” immediately after his systematic attempt to reinstate philosophy through works such as Being and Event (1988), Manifesto for Philosophy (1989), and Conditions (1992). In line with his Platonic stance, Badiou sought a polemical engagement with the contemporary versions of the sophists—those eternal adversaries or rivals of philosophers—whom he labeled “Great Sophistry” in Manifesto for Philosophy. For Badiou, anti-philosophy fundamentally aims at an act of unconditional rupture, indeterminate transformation, and an unfounded leap into the new. In any case, there is much for the philosopher to learn from encountering the anti-philosopher. Indeed, Badiou believed that such encounters could at least help philosophy clarify its agenda through the challenges posed by this particularly unsettling “other.” With this in mind, Badiou devoted his annual seminars at the École Normale Supérieure from 1992 onward to four major anti-philosophers: Nietzsche (1992–1993), Wittgenstein (1993–1994), Lacan (1994–1995), and Saint Paul (1995–1996). This article problematizes Badiou’s reading of Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, and Lacan as anti-philosophers, figures to whom he accorded a privileged place in his anti-philosophical canon. In terms of its findings, Badiou’s Anti-Philosophy Seminars constitute anti-historical, immanent critical readings that seek “the outside within” the history of philosophy as a way to continue its project.