Alain Badiou, Ph.D., born in Rabat, Morocco in 1937, holds the Rene Descartes Chair at the European Graduate School EGS. Alain Badiou was a student at the 脡cole Normale Sup茅rieure in the 1950s. He taught at the University of Paris VIII (Vincennes-Saint Denis) from 1969 until 1999, when he returned to ENS as the Chair of the philosophy department. He continues to teach a popular seminar at the Coll猫ge International de Philosophie, on topics ranging from the great 'antiphilosophers' (Saint-Paul, Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, Lacan) to the major conceptual innovations of the twentieth century. Much of Badiou's life has been shaped by his dedication to the consequences of the May 1968 revolt in Paris. Long a leading member of Union des jeunesses communistes de France (marxistes-l茅ninistes), he remains with Sylvain Lazarus and Natacha Michel at the center of L'Organisation Politique, a post-party organization concerned with direct popular intervention in a wide range of issues (including immigration, labor, and housing). He is the author of several successful novels and plays as well as more than a dozen philosophical works.
Trained as a mathematician, Alain Badiou is one of the most original French philosophers today. Influenced by Plato, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Jacques Lacan and Gilles Deleuze, he is an outspoken critic of both the analytic as well as the postmodern schools of thoughts. His philosophy seeks to expose and make sense of the potential of radical innovation (revolution, invention, transfiguration) in every situation.
脡loge de l'amour = In Praise of Love, Alain Badiou
Alain Badiou (born 17 January 1937) is a French philosopher, formerly chair of Philosophy at the 脡cole normale sup茅rieure (ENS) and founder of the faculty of Philosophy of the Universit茅 de Paris VIII with Gilles Deleuze, Michel Foucault and Jean-Fran莽ois Lyotard. Badiou has written about the concepts of being, truth, event and the subject in a way that, he claims, is neither postmodern nor simply a repetition of modernity.
In the "In Praise of Love", Alain Badiou takes on contemporary 'dating agency' conceptions of love that come complete with zero-risk insurance - like US zero-casualty bombs. He develops a new take on love that sees it as an adventure, and an opportunity for re-invention, in a constant exploration of otherness and difference that leads the individual out of an obsession with identity and self.
Let me confess straight away: I am in thrall to Alain Badiou, a French philosopher who was born in 1937 and therefore in 2013 is 76.
I make no pretence to objectivity in this review.
I share his interests, love and politics, culture and philosophy, and his analysis accords with my predisposition.
What has he done? He鈥檚 defined a worldview with which I wholeheartedly agree in 104 pages of passionate, pristine prose.
Reading it has been the most amazing and life-changing experience of my postgraduate, autodidactic life.
Unbeknown to me, I have been searching for this man all of my life.
Socrates:"Anyone who doesn鈥檛 take love as their starting-point will never discover what philosophy is about."
I Think, Therefore You Don鈥檛 Exist
Descartes:"I think, therefore I am."
Notice anything about this sentence? The first person pronoun is used twice. There is no "you"! There is no "we". There is no "us". There is no narrative. There is no love. There is only "solitary consciousness".
Boring! Philosophy, lift your game!
Immanuel Kant later postulated that we could never truly 鈥渒now鈥� the Other or the exterior, objective world.
And that type of approach resulted in solipsism! You don鈥檛 exist, except in my mind!
When I hold you in my arms, I know intuitively that that鈥檚 not true.
Half of these philosophers lacked adequate personal experience in sex, desire and love, or felt guilty about it.
Help! We need a philosopher to sort this out. Better still, a French one. One from the Continent.
Let鈥檚 give this gentle homme a chance鈥�
Random Encounter
Let鈥檚 assume that you exist. "You think, therefore you are."
See, that wasn鈥檛 that hard, was it?
Now, let鈥檚 assume that it鈥檚 just the two of us on Earth. Somehow, we meet each other at a party. We enjoy our "Encounter". It鈥檚 a "Magical Moment". It鈥檚 an "Act of Randomness". Later, we will describe it as our "Random Encounter".
What am I going to do with you? What are you going to do with me?
How do we describe our relationship?
Is This Love or Desire?
I venture the word "Desire".
Alain Badiou: "Desire is immediately powerful...Desire focuses on the Other, always in a somewhat fetishist manner, on particular objects, like breasts, buttocks and cock."
Suddenly, you say, "I don鈥檛 like the sound of that. What about Friendship, what about Love?"
Me: OK, but what is Love?
Alain Badiou:"Love is a quest for truth.I mean truth in relation to something quite precise: what kind of world does One see when One experiences it from the point of view of Two and not One? What is the world like when it is experienced, developed and lived from the point of view of Difference and not Identity? That is what I believe Love to be."
You: Can you have both Love and Desire?
Alain Badiou: "If you declare your Love to each other, Love includes and embraces Desire."
Me: Pardon?
Alain Badiou: "Love, particularly over time, embraces all the positive aspects of Friendship, but Love relates to the totality of the Being of the Other."
You: What do you mean by "the totality of the Being"?
Alain Badiou: "I mean the totality of your Being. All of it, everything. All of you. You. Your heart, your soul, your mind, your body."
Me: What about Sex?
Alain Badiou: "The Surrender of the Body becomes the material symbol of that totality."
You: "Sorry, what do I have to Surrender?"
Alain Badiou: "Surrendering your body, taking your clothes off, being naked for the Other, rehearsing those hallowed gestures, renouncing all embarrassment, shouting, all this involvement of the body is evidence of a Surrender to Love. It crucially distinguishes it from Friendship. Friendship doesn鈥檛 involve bodily contact, or any resonances in pleasure of the body."
Me: So, if I declare my Love, she will Surrender??
Alain Badiou: "Within the framework of a Love that declares itself, this Declaration, even if it remains latent, is what produces the effects of Desire, and not Desire itself. Love proves itself by permeating Desire."
I look at you. You nod.
Commitment
You: Tell me you love me then.
I look at Alain. I look back at you. I say, "I love you."
Alain Badiou: "A declaration of "I love you" seals the act of the Encounter, is central and constitutes a Commitment."
Me: What am I committing myself to here?
Alain Badiou: "You鈥檙e committing to Love, which I describe as a 鈥楾wo Scene鈥�".
Difference and Identity
Alain Badiou: "Starting out from something that is simply an Encounter, a trifle, you learn that you can experience the world on the basis of Difference and not only in terms of Identity.
"In Love, at the absolute Difference that exists between two individuals, one of the biggest Differences one can imagine, given that it is an infinite Difference, yet an Encounter, a Declaration and Fidelity can transform that into a creative Existence."
You: "We don鈥檛 have to be mirror images of each other. We don鈥檛 have to be identical. Like Doppelg盲nger."
A Two Scene
Me: What do you mean by a 鈥楾wo Scene鈥�?
Alain Badiou: "Love involves a separation or disjuncture based on the simple Difference between two people and their infinite subjectivities.
"This disjuncture is, in most cases, Sexual Difference.
"When that isn鈥檛 the case, Love still ensures that two figures, two different interpretive stances are set in opposition.
"In other words, Love contains an initial element that separates, dislocates and differentiates. You have Two. Love involves Two. A 鈥楾wo Scene鈥�.
"Precisely because it encompasses a disjuncture, at the moment when this Two appear on stage as such and experience the world in a new way, Love can only assume a risky or contingent form.
"That is what we know as "the Encounter". Love always starts with an Encounter.
"Love is evidence we can encounter and experience the world other than through a solitary consciousness.
"The issue of Separation is so important in Love that one can also define Love as a successful struggle against Separation."
Me: "So it鈥檚 a bit like a three-legged race? We have to stick together. We can鈥檛 continually pull away or in opposite directions. We have to work out a mutually acceptable way of moving ahead, without One dragging the Other against their Will."
Truth Procedure
Me: "How are we supposed to deal with our Differences?"
Alain Badiou: "The answer comes down to 鈥楾ruth鈥�".
"I believe that Love is what I call a "Truth Procedure", that is, an experience whereby a certain kind of Truth is constructed.
"This Truth is quite simply the Truth about Two: the Truth that derives from Difference as such. And I think that Love - what I call the 'Two Scene' - is this Experience.
"In this sense, all Love that accepts the challenge, commits to enduring, and embraces this Experience of the world from the perspective of Difference produces in its way a new Truth about Difference."
Construction
Alain Badiou: "Love isn鈥檛 simply about two people meeting and their inward-looking relationship: it is a Construction, a life that is being made, no longer from the perspective of One but from the perspective of Two. And that is what I have called a 鈥楾wo Scene鈥�."
You: "So Love is more than Love at first sight?" You looked at me as you said it.
Alain Badiou: "Love cannot be reduced to the first Encounter, because it is a Construction.
"The enigma in thinking about Love is the duration of time necessary for it to flourish. In fact, it isn鈥檛 the ecstasy of those beginnings that is remarkable.
"The latter are clearly ecstatic, but Love is above all a Construction that lasts."
Me: So Real Love transcends the Randomness of the first Encounter and outlasts it.
Point by Point
Alain Badiou: "I go along with the miracle of the Encounter, but I think it remains confined, if we don鈥檛 channel it towards the onerous development of a Truth that is constructed Point by Point".
Me: What do you mean when you say "Point by Point"?
Alain Badiou: "A 'Point' is a decision point, a point when you have to decide how you are going to deal with a situation, a particular moment around which an Event establishes itself, where it must be re-played in some way, as if it were returning in a changed, displaced form, but one forcing you 'to declare afresh'.
"A Point, in effect, comes when the consequences of a Construction of a Truth, whether it be political, amorous, artistic or scientific, suddenly compels you to opt for a radical choice, as if you were back at the beginning, when you accepted and declared the event.
Me: So having a made a Commitment, something might happen, a challenge, a problem, a dispute, that requires a decision, you have to negotiate and agree a resolution? You make a new Commitment or you refresh the original Commitment?
Alain Badiou: "Yes. We could say that Love is a tenacious adventure. The adventurous side is necessary, but equally so is the need for tenacity . To give up at the first hurdle, the first serious disagreement, the first quarrel, is only to distort Love.
"Real Love is one that triumphs lastingly, sometimes painfully, over the hurdles erected by time, space and the world."
A Work of Love
Me: "You say the Truth Process is 鈥榦nerous鈥�. It sounds like hard work. Isn鈥檛 the act of falling in Love enough?"
Alain Badiou: "鈥極nerous鈥� must be taken here as something positive.
"There is a work of Love: it is not simply a miracle.
"You must be in the breech, on guard: you must be at one with yourself and the Other.
"You must think, act and change. And then, surely, Happiness follows, as the immanent reward for all that work."
Me: So Happiness is an Earthly reward for the effort we put into our Love. We earn our Happiness from Love鈥檚 Labours.
Jealousy
Me: Does being Jealous prove that you鈥檙e in Love? Or does it mean you鈥檙e just obsessive?
Alain Badiou: "Good question. On this point, I disagree profoundly with all those who think that Jealousy is a constituent element of Love.
"The most brilliant representative of the latter is Proust, for whom Jealousy is the real, intense, demonic content of amorous subjectivity.
"Jealousy is a fake parasite that feeds on Love and doesn鈥檛 at all help to define it. Must every Love identify an external rival before it can declare itself, before it can begin? No way! The reverse is the case: the immanent difficulties of Love, the internal contradictions of the Two Scene can crystallize around a third party, a rival, imagined or real.
"The difficulties Love harbours don鈥檛 stem from the existence of an enemy who has been identified. They are internal to the process: the creative play of Difference."
Combative Love
Alain Badiou:"Selfishness, not any rival, is love鈥檚 enemy. One could say: my Love鈥檚 main enemy, the one I must defeat, is not the other, it is myself, the 'myself' that prefers Identity to Difference, that prefers to impose its world against the world re-constructed through the filter of Difference.
"We must demonstrate that Love really does have universal power, but that it is simply the opportunity we are given to enjoy a positive, creative, affirmative experience of Difference."
Me: So it鈥檚 OK to have differences of opinion as long as you recognise and permit Difference and don鈥檛 seek to impose the Identity of One on the Other. Differences of opinion are actually healthy?
Alain Badiou: "Christianity substitutes devout, passive, deferential Love for the Combative Love I am praising here, that earthly creation of the differentiated birth of a new world and a Happiness won Point by Point.
"Love on bended knee is no Love at all as far as I am concerned, even if Love sometimes arouses Passion in us that makes us yield to the Loved One."
I Believe in Miracles
You: Why does falling in Love seem like such a miracle? Is Love more than a chance meeting with the Other?
Alain Badiou: "Love remains powerful, subjectively powerful: it鈥檚 one of those rare Experiences where, on the basis of Chance inscribed in a moment, you attempt a Declaration of Eternity.
"The moment of the miraculous Encounter promises the Eternity of Love, though what I want to suggest is a concept of Love that is less miraculous and more hard work, namely a Construction of Eternity within time, of the Experience of the Two, Point by Point."
I Will Always Love You
Me: Is Love forever?
Alain Badiou: "If 'I love you' is always, in most respects, the heralding of 'I鈥檒l always love you', it is in effect locking Chance into the framework of Eternity.
"The Declaration of Love marks the transition from Chance to Destiny, and that鈥檚 why it is so perilous and so burdened with a kind of horrifying stage fright.
" 鈥楢lways鈥� means 鈥榚ternally鈥�. It is simply a Commitment within time."
Me: For an Atheist, Love can鈥檛 endure beyond death.
Alain Badiou: "There is no fabulous world of the afterlife. But Love, the essence of which is Fidelity in the meaning I give to this word, demonstrates how Eternity can exist within the time span of Life itself.
"Happiness in Love is the proof that Time can accommodate Eternity.鈥�
Fidelity
Me: What do you mean by 'Fidelity'? Does it mean more than the simple promise not to sleep with someone else?
Alain Badiou: "The initial Declaration of 'I love you' is a Commitment requiring no particular consecration, the Commitment to construct something that will endure in order to release the Encounter from its randomness.
"By Fidelity, I mean: I shall extract something else from what was mere Chance.
"I鈥檓 going to extract something that will endure, something that will persist, a Commitment, a Fidelity.
"And here I am using the word 'Fidelity' within my own philosophical jargon, stripped of its usual connotations. It means precisely that transition from Random Encounter to a Construction that is resilient, as if it had been necessary.
"In Love, Fidelity signifies this extended victory: the randomness of an Encounter defeated day after day through the invention of what will endure, through the birth of a world."
Me: So the Construction of Love gives birth to a new world comprised of and between the Two. And Fidelity is designed to ensure that that world endures.
Politics
Me: You talk about Politics in the same way you talk about Love.
Alain Badiou: "Real politics is that which gives enthusiasm. Love and Politics are the two great figures of social engagement.
"Politics is enthusiasm with a collective; with Love, two people. So Love is the minimal form of communism.
"By 'communist' I understand that which makes the 鈥榟eld-in-common鈥� [ed: 'shared'?] prevail over selfishness, the collective achievement over private self-interest.
"Love is communist in that sense, if one accepts, as I do, that the real subject of a love is the becoming of the couple and not the mere satisfaction of the individuals that are its component parts. Yet another possible definition of love: minimal communism!"
Me: How do Politics and Love differ?
Alain Badiou: "Politics constitutes a Truth Procedure, but one that centres on the Collective.
"Political action tests out the Truth of what the Collective is capable of achieving.
"What are individuals capable of when they meet, organize, think and take decisions?
"In Love, it is about two people being able to handle Difference and make it creative.
"In Politics, it is about finding out whether a number of people, a mass of people in fact, can create equality.
"The problem Politics confronts is the control of Hatred, not of Love. And Hatred is a passion that almost inevitably poses the question of the Enemy.
"In other words, in Politics, where Enemies do exist, one role of the organization, whatever that may be, is to control, indeed to destroy, the consequences of Hatred."
Fraternity
Alain Badiou: "What on earth is 'Fraternity'? No doubt it is related to the issue of Differences, of their friendly co-presence within the political process, the essential boundary being the confrontation with the Enemy.
"And that is a notion that can be covered by internationalism, because, if the Collective can really take Equality on board, that means it can also integrate the most extensive divergences and greatly limit the power of Identity.
"The theatre is a community and the aesthetic expression of Fraternity. That鈥檚 why I argue that there is, in that sense, something communist in all theatre."
Art and Theatre
Alain Badiou: "Only art restores the dimension of the senses to an Encounter, an insurrection or a riot. Art, in all its forms, is a great reflection on the Event as such.
"Theatre is politics and love, and more generally, about the two intersecting.
"The theme of Love as a Game is crucial in the Theatre, and that it鈥檚 all precisely about Declarations. It is also because this Theatre of Love, this powerful Game of Love and Chance exists, that I have this love for the Theatre.
"The relationship between the Theatre and Love is also the exploration of the abyss separating individuals, and the description of the fragile nature of the bridge that Love throws between two solitudes."
Harmony
Me: The reconciliation of your Love and your Politics meant a lot to you.
Alain Badiou: "I realised that conviction in Love and Politics is something one must never renounce.
"That was really the moment when, in between Politics and Love, my life found the musical chord that ensured its harmony."
Endurance
Marxism has always endeavoured to construct a worldview on the foundation of Labour that fulfilled and rewarded the Worker.
To achieve this goal, it had to overcome the Alienation inherent in Capitalism.
Communism in practice never succeeded, because it simply replaced one oppressor with another, the State.
While Badiou still claims to be a Communist, he seems to be a Communist in the Atheist sense of trying, in the absence of God and an Afterlife, to create a Heaven on Earth.
An essential component of this worldview is Love, both at a personal and a political level.
It鈥檚 fascinating that his philosophy attributes great value to work and effort.
In Love, as in Politics, as in Employment, if we want something, we have to work for it.
Success is the reward for Effort.
In both Politics and Love, the reward is a Happiness that will last and endure.
Epigrams
The following epigrams are either the express words of Badiou or my paraphrase of his propositions.
1 Love includes and embraces Desire.
2 Love is what we construct on the foundation of our Differences.
3 Love is the birth of a new world constructed and shared by two different people.
4 We deal with our Differences, point by point, one at a time, for the duration of our Love.
5 It is our effort that makes Love endure.
6 Happiness is the reward for the effort we put into our Love.
...love encompasses the experience of the possible transition from the pure randomness of chance to a state that has universal value. Starting out from something that is simply an encounter, a trifle, you learn that you can experience the world on the basis of difference and not only in terms of identity...love really is a unique trust placed in chance.
***
[Love] is an existential project: to construct a world from a decentred point of view other than that of my mere impulse to survive or re-affirm my own identity.
...When I lean on the shoulder of the woman I love, and can see, let's say, the peace of twilight over a mountain landscape, gold-green fields, the shadow of trees, black-nosed sheep motionless behind hedges and the sun about to disappear behind craggy peaks, and know not from the expression of her face, but from within the world as it is that the woman I love is seeing the same world, and that this convergence is part of the world and that love constitutes precisely, at that very moment, the paradox of an identical difference, then love exists, and promises to continue to exist.
...Love is always the possibility of being present at the birth of the world.
***
Love is simultaneously ignited, consummated and consumed in the meeting, in a magical moment outside the world as it really is. Something happens that is in the nature of a miracle, an existential intensity, an encounter leading to meltdown. ...love is consumed in the ineffable, exceptional moment of the encounter, after which it is impossible to go back to a world that remains external to the relationship.
***
...love invents a different way of lasting in life. That everyone's existence, when tested by love, confronts a new way of experiencing time...love is a re-invention of life. To re-invent love is to re-invent that re-invention.
***
...the affinities between poems and declarations of love are well known. In both cases, huge risks are involved that are dependent on language itself. It is about uttering a word the effects of which, in existence, can be almost infinite. That is also the desire driving a poem. The simplest words become charged with an intensity that is almost intolerable. To make a declaration of love is to move from the event-encounter to embark on a construction of truth. The chance nature of the encounter morphs into the assumption of a beginning. And often what starts there lasts so long, is so charged with novelty and experience of the world that in retrospect it doesn't seem random and contingent, as it appeared initially, but almost a necessity. That is how chance is curbed: the absolute contingency of the encounter with someone I didn't know finally takes on the appearance of destiny.
***
...if 'I love you' is always, in most respects, the heralding of 'I'll always love you', it is in effect locking chance into the framework of eternity...The locking in of chance is an anticipation of eternity. And to an extent, every love states that is eternal: it is assumed within the declaration.
***
...happiness in love is the proof that time can accommodate eternity.
***
The only temporal dimension possible for eternity [is] the moment.
***
To love is to struggle, beyond solitude, with everything in the world that can animate existence.
70 sayfal谋k bu minik kitapla ilgili 70 sayfa yazabilirim san谋r谋m: 枚yle 莽ok etkilendim. Bir kere bir Rimbaud al谋nt谋s谋yla ba艧l谋yor bu nefis sohbet: 鈥淎艧k谋 yeniden icat etmeli, besbelli.鈥� Sonra Proust鈥檃, Mallarm茅鈥檈, Simone de Beauvoir鈥檃 uzan谋yor, Pessoa鈥檡a ba艧vuruyor ve hayatta a莽谋k ara en 莽ok sevdi臒im a艧k kitab谋 olan Andr茅 Gorz鈥檜n Son Mektup鈥檜nu elbette ki es ge莽miyor. (Gorz鈥檜 hat谋rlamak ve hat谋rlatmak isterim: 鈥淵ak谋nda seksen iki ya艧谋nda olacaks谋n. Boyun alt谋 santim k谋sald谋, olsa olsa k谋rk be艧 kilosun ve h芒l芒 g眉zel, 莽ekici, arzu uyand谋r谋c谋s谋n. Elli sekiz y谋ld谋r birlikte ya艧谋yoruz ve ben seni her zamankinden 莽ok seviyorum.鈥�) Nicolas Truong soruyor, Alain Badiou enfes bir yal谋nl谋kla anlat谋yor: G眉n眉m眉zdeki online dating pratiklerinin a艧k谋 鈥渞isksiz鈥� ve 鈥済arantili鈥� hale getirme 莽abas谋ndaki g眉l眉n莽l眉臒眉 ve 莽eli艧kiyi, a艧ka 鈥渄眉艧meden / d眉艧mekten ka莽arak鈥� a艧k谋n m眉mk眉n olamayaca臒谋n谋, ac谋 莽ekmekten duydu臒umuz korkunun a艧k谋n var olu艧una nas谋l ayk谋r谋 oldu臒unu, arzunun 枚znelli臒ini, 鈥渒ar艧谋la艧ma mucizesi鈥漬in 枚tesinde uzanan, 鈥渟眉re鈥� ile g眉莽lenen ve ancak emekle m眉mk眉n olan 鈥渟眉rd眉r眉lebilir鈥� a艧ktan kopmu艧lu臒umuzu, a艧k谋 nas谋l bir 鈥済er莽ekli臒i bulma y枚ntemi鈥� olarak deneyimlemek gerekti臒ini, a艧k谋n asl谋nda 鈥渂ir d眉艧眉nce鈥� oldu臒unu鈥� Mucize gibi bir k眉莽眉k kitap. 脟ok, 莽ok, 莽ok sevdim. 鈥淎艧k tam anlam谋yla bir olas谋l谋k de臒il, daha 莽ok olanaks谋z olarak g枚r眉lebilecek bir 艧eyin a艧谋lmas谋d谋r. (鈥�) Ba艧lang谋莽ta ilan edilen a艧k ayn谋 zamanda 鈥榶eniden ilan edilmeli鈥檇ir. Bu y眉zden a艧k, ayr谋ca 艧iddetli varolu艧 bunal谋mlar谋n谋n k枚kenidir: her ger莽ekli臒i bulma y枚ntemi gibi.鈥�
Alain Badiou states the obvious in the Tinder era. More or less all of what he said could have been summed up in a succinct, elegant 10-page essay, but the contemporary French don't do that 鈥� they pontificate using lit Gauloises like conductors' wands (something I have a tendency to do as well, eep), invoking Lacan and Plato's Republic. I didn't need this kind of intellectual circle jerk in my life, and you don't either.
Read it in one go, of course. Last night -to be precise. It was an unforgettable night. The pleasures of reading about the philosophical ideas of love last longer than the pleasures of the physical expression of love, but the two are not necessarily mutually exclusive.
I agree with Badiou's insistence on love as a higher ideal, more than with Lacan's rational theory of love as a particle of our existence.
Badiou suggests that love 'becomes' and he arrives to this conclusion by giving gravity to the 'adventure' that precedes love. The 'adventure' is separated from the initial encounter, the warm, fuzzy feeling of being in love. 'Adventure' is when we succumb to the risks inherent to love. And love, is the product of the 'adventure'.
It was refreshing to read this wise man's view that,all this trouble of protecting oneself from the side-effects of love,in essence deprives one from that which was sought in the first place: love.
To try to understand love and its impact on the person is hard enough. But it is definitely worth aiming for, as the benefits are deeper and much more rewarding than what a risk-free, contractual approach of love.
I would have enjoyed a discussion on the various formulations of love. Expressions of love if you like. Badiou suggests to throw love in the rocks and stick with it, but would the result be as romantic and fulfilling as we would have liked it to be? When we end up resenting the other person for what they did to love during the 'adventure' is that another formulation of love? Is there anything worth fighting for in order for love to become?
Nicola Truong's questions were challenging but urged Badiou for a more philosophical and less practical approach on love.
Thoroughlly enjoyed this book. Definitely worth reading, contemplating and if you can find someone you can talk this with, then you'll be really lucky.
More than 150 years ago, Kierkegaard wrote a brilliant essay mourning the loss of passion in the world. His words are truer now for the modern world. This short work by Alain Badiou is a passionate defence of the universal phenomenon of love in the ennui of the modern world. In a world where everything including love has fallen under consumerism, where everything is calculated as an investment.
He invokes other thinkers who talked about love, like Lacan, Kierkegaard and Plato. He also makes the case for his view of love as a quest for truth. Love makes you look at the world through the perspective of difference. He argues that love is not just an experience but an event in reality. It starts with an encounter and then becomes a truth-procedure that leads from subjective experience to universal value. He also challenges the romantic conception of love. He argues for love as something that takes shape over time. Love is a construction that is being made from the perspective of two.
He distinguishes this with the conception of love in religion where one forgets oneself, leading to the experience of God. Love leading to transcendence. Love here takes the form of yielding to a God. As a Marxist, he wants to separate love from that. Bring it back to Earth.
Love and Politics is another interesting chapter. Politics is a collective affair. Love is like politics in the sense that love has a same structure as communist politics, but in a two-fold way. 鈥淩eal politics is to engage to resolve problems within a collective with enthusiasm. It's not simply to delegate problems to the professionals. Love is like politics in that it's not a professional affair. There are no professionals in love, and none in real politics.鈥�
And finally love as a struggle. 鈥漈o love is to struggle, beyond solitude, with everything in the world that can animate existence.鈥�
Nicolas Truong soruyor, Alain Badiou yan谋tl谋yor. A艧k鈥櫮� konu艧uyorlar, onun pek 莽ok y眉z眉n眉. Rimbaud鈥檜n 艧u s枚z眉n眉 temel al谋yorlar : 鈥淎艧k谋 yeniden icat etmeli鈥� . 陌cat etmeli ama kim? Neden ve daha 枚nemlisi nas谋l? Klavyelerimizden d枚k眉len kelimelerle mi? Meydanlara 莽谋k谋p 鈥榓艧k hala vard谋r鈥� diye ba臒谋rarak m谋? Tuvallere yans谋yan renklerle mi? Hepsi olabilir mi? Badiou 艧枚yle diyor: 鈥榓艧k her zaman her yerdedir鈥� . Tehdit Alt谋ndaki A艧k, Felsefecilerle A艧k, Sevgililerin Kurdu臒u, A艧k谋n Ger莽ekli臒i, A艧kla Siyaset, A艧kla Sanat ba艧l谋klar谋ndan olu艧an g枚rece k谋sa bir kitap A艧ka 脰vg眉. Ancak 眉zerinde uzun uzun d眉艧眉nd眉rd眉 beni (枚zellikle a艧k谋n dile gelmesi konusu, 鈥榢alp ile tasdik dil ile ikrar鈥櫮� yeniden anlamland谋rmam谋 sa臒lad谋). Ve okuduk莽a 艧unu bir kez daha g枚rd眉m: a艧k谋n de臒medi臒i-de臒inmedi臒i hi莽bir nokta yok yery眉z眉nde. . Badiou ve Truong doyurucu sohbetinden alt谋n谋 莽izdi臒im 枚yle 莽ok c眉mle oldu ki. Birini yazsam di臒eri al谋n谋r gibi hissediyorum. . Or莽un T眉rkay 莽evirisi, Bora Ba艧kan kapak tasar谋m谋yla ~
Weirdly, this might be a great place to start with Badiou. More weirdly, it isn't even available in the US. It's a slight little thing, but packed with insights and beautiful meditations on the challenges of love. Awesome.