4

For those of you who have read Alain Badiou's Being and Event Series, does it seem like something worth reading? What is the synopsis of the series, and how does the trilogy differ from eachother?

TCoff
  • 365
  • 1
  • 7
  • 1
    I am not sure how we can say what would be worth reading for you knowing nothing about your background or interests. Badiou is a polarizing figure, some consider Being and Event the new Sein und Zeit, other don't. Here is a review by mathematicians, who were thoroughly unimpressed:"Badiou confuses contingent attributes of informal models with necessary consequences of the axioms (we will call this type of confusion a Pythagoric snare). The politico-philosophical claims that result have no grounding in the set theory..." – Conifold Feb 23 '23 at 01:23

1 Answers1

5

I have read the first 2 volumes and half of the third, and my answer is yes, as long as you are ready for the challenge.

Badiou is a great philosopher, although a controversial one. Zizek even compared him to Hegel. He is a Platonist, a metaphysician in the sense of Hegel, a systematic mathematical philosopher, and a giant in modern continental philosophy (even though his manner of writing clear, and is closer to analytic philosphy).

His philosophical system is difficult, many-sided and provocative. The 3 books are similar to one another, they deal with questions of ontology, mathematics, reality and politics. Although Badiou writes in very clear and straightforward language (nothing like Lacan and Derrida), be warned that the mathematics he deals with is very challenging, and he constantly references many other hard philosophers like Lacan, Deleuze and Hegel. I am very good in maths, so I found his books breathtakingly interesting, but if you are a beginner, you will probably find his books very hard going, and you will get discouraged after about 10 pages.

Now on to the trilogy contents.

Volume 1 starts with a thesis that "mathematics is ontology". According to Badiou, great modern mathematicians like Godel, Cantor, Cohen and Grothendieck were ontologists. Mathematics is not a scholastic obscure discipline separate from philosophy, it is a part of it. Mathematical theories are theories of being. This volume deals with transfinite set theory, and the great discovery of Paul Cohen. Chapters are pretty short, and there is a very useful appendix at the end. Chapters are sandwiched, one deals with math, and another one deals with philosophical theories (hegelian bad infinity, marxist concepts, lacanian psychoanalysis and others), then back to math etc.

Volume 2 deals with category theory. It is also a difficult area of modern maths, and there are many graphs in the book.

Volume 3 is back to set theory, and it is largely a re-interpretation and clarification of volume 1.

Let's pray that Badiou ends up writing volume 4, because that volume would finish and clarify volume 2.

Dennis Kozevnikoff
  • 1,295
  • 3
  • 16
  • 1
    A small addend: Badiou's books are better enjoyed with small doses of alcohol, soft music, and with lots of note-taking, in a quiet space where you can focus on reading them. They are not made for the bus at all. – T. Sar Feb 23 '23 at 11:19