Badiou and the Political Condition

This book unpacks the diverse intellectual legacies woven into Badiou’s work on contemporary polemics and political interventions. Alain Badiou formulated a two-pronged question about politics: when, and under what conditions, can an event be said to be political? What is the ‘what happens’ in so far as it happens politically? These 15 essays, which include two new essays by Badiou himself and an interview with him, address this question and reflect on the formative traditions that shape the background of Badiou’s political thought. They critically evaluate Badiou’s work so far and break new ground by creating new thresholds of political thought. It includes a chapter by Badiou on the Arab Spring, a dialogue on Western interventionism and an interview with him on the current crisis in Europe. It addresses the entire range of Badiou’s political interventions and polemics. It investigates the anti-imperialist edge of his philosophy of truth. It brings together his opposition to parliamentary politics with his trenchant critique of biopolitics.