Alain Badiou: Live Theory

Alain Badiou is undoubtedly the most exciting and influential voice in contemporary French philosophy and one of the most important theorists at work today. His impact on continental philosophy and the wider philosophy community, politics and the arts in the last twenty years has been immense.

Alain Badiou: Live Theory offers a concise and accessible introduction to his work and thought, laying out the central themes of his major works, including his magnum opus, Being and Event, and its long-awaited sequel, Logics of Worlds. Oliver Feltham explores the fundamental questions through which Badiou's philosophy constantly evolves, identifies the key turning points in his ideas, and makes a clear case for the coherence and powerful singularity of his thought when employed in the analysis of political and artistic situations. Feltham examines the thinkers and theorists with whom Badiou has engaged and who have engaged with him, arguing that Badiou's work is compelling precisely because it opens up new genealogies and new polemics in the intellectual landscape. The book includes a brand new interview with Badiou, in which he discusses his current concerns and future plans.

This is the ideal companion to study for students and readers encountering this fascinating thinker for the first time.

1. The Althusserian Years:
   Epistemology and the production of change
   Introduction
   I. Structural Change in Society
   II. Structural Change in Knowledge: science and ideology
   III.The Mathematical Concept of Model and Scientific Change
2. Maoism and the dialectic
   Introduction
   I. The Maoist turn: the Primacy of Practice
   II. The Structural Dialectic and its Periodization
   III.Consistency and the Historical Dialectic
3. Set theory ontology and the modeling of change
   Introduction: the subtraction of Maoism
   I. Set theory ontology
   II. The Event and the Intervention
   III Forcing and the Generic
   IV. Method
4. Interview with Alain Badiou
   Further Reading
   Index