Alain Badiou

141 Pages·2011·2.29 MB·English

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The Rational Kernel of the
Hegelian Dialectic
TRANSMISSION
Transmission denotes the
transfer of information,
objects or forces from one
place to another, from
one person to another.
Transmission implies
urgency, even emergency:
a line humming, an alarm
sounding, a messenger
bearing news. Through
Transmission interven-
tions are supported, and
opinions overturned.
Transmission republishes
classic works in philoso-
phy, as it publishes works
that re-examine classical
philosophical thought.
Transmission is the name
for what takes place.
The Rational Kernel of the
Hegelian Dialectic
Translations, introductions and commentary
on a text by Zhang Shiying
Alain Badiou
Joël Bellassen
Louis Mossot
Edited and translated by
Tzuchien Tho
re.press
PO Box 40, Prahran, 3181, Melbourne, Australia
http://www.re-press.org
© re.press 2011
This work is ‘Open Access’, published under a creative commons license which means that
you are free to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work as long as you clearly attribute
the work to the authors, that you do not use this work for any commercial gain in any form
and that you in no way alter, transform or build on the work outside of its use in normal aca-
demic scholarship without express permission of the author and the publisher of this volume.
Furthermore, for any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of
this work. For more information see the details of the creative commons licence at this web-
site: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Badiou, Alain.
The rational kernel of the Hegelian dialectic /
Alain Badiou; Tzuchien Tho, editor and translator.
9780980819762 (pbk.)
9780980819779 (ebook : pdf)
Series: Transmission.
Includes bibliographical references.
Philosophy, Marxist. Ideology. Dialectical materialism.
Other Authors/Contributors:
Joël Bellassen, Louis Mossot, Tho, Tzuchien.
320.5315
Designed and Typeset by A&R
Printed on-demand in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States
This book is produced sustainably using plantation timber, and printed in the destination
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Contents
Acknowledgements vii
INtroDuCtIoN ix
One Divides into Two? Dividing the Conditions xi
by Tzuchien Tho xi
Technical Note xxvii
the rAtIoNAL KerNeL of the hegeLIAN DIALeCtIC 1
The ‘Yenan’ Collection 3
Foreword 7
Hegel in France 11
Hegel in China 17
The Rational Kernel of Hegel’s Philosophy 21
by Zhang Shiying
I. The principle relative to movement and the independence of phenomena 22
II. The fundamental principle of dialectics (Contradiction) 27
III. The principle according to which there is a conversion of quantitative
change into radical qualitative change 30
IV. The principle according to which knowledge is a process that goes
from the abstract to the concrete, from the simple to the complex 32
V. The principle relative to the identity of thought and of being and
the coincidence between the logical and the historical 38
VI. The principle relative to the coincidence between logic and
theory of knowledge 42
Commentary 49
(a) On being, nothing, becoming 51
I. The idealism of the passage from being to nothing 51
II. Iteration, then, and not dialectics 53
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vi The Rational Kernel of the Hegelian Dialectic
(b) On the interior and the exterior. Hegelian topology 58
(c) One divides into two 60
(d) On the sense of the word ‘critique’ 61
(e) On the category of negation 62
(f) On the laws of dialectic 64
(g) Quantity and Quality: place, excess, destruction 66
(h) History of Philosophy, real history, Glucksmann, Heidegger 68
(i) Class struggle on thought and being 72
(J) On the term ‘active character’ [caractère agissant] 74
(k) The philosophical concept of deviation 75
(l) ‘In sticking close to the content’ [En collant de près au contenu] 78
(m) A synthesis on the materialist dialectic 80
AN INtervIew wIth ALAIN BADIou 85
From the ‘Red Years’ to the Communist Hypothesis:
Three Decades of Dividing into Two 87
Part I 87
Part II 94
Bibliography 107
About the Authors 109
Acknowledgements
This project could not have been completed without the tremendous
help, encouragement, kindness and love shown to me not only by my
partner Amy Anderson-Tho and my family but also by friends, comrades
and colleagues: Benjamin Bishop, Patricia Goldsworthy, Krisha McCune,
Priyanka Pandit, Evans Chan, Oliver Feltham, Giuseppe Bianco, Pietro
Bianchi, Samo Tomšič, Avigail Moss, Eli Noé, Z. Luke Fraser, Dhruv
Jain, Colin McQuillan, Frank Ruda, Jan and Marie Bergstrom. I would
also like to thank the now fatally endangered Jan Van Eyck Academie in
Maastricht Netherlands for supporting my research during this period.
Its director, Koen Brams, the advisors in the theory department, Katja
Diefenbach, Dominiek Hoens and Mladen Dolar as well as the techni-
cal and administrative staff not only provided the infrastructure but also
afforded us the positive freedom necessary to create and re-create such a
rare space of intellectual intensity, rigor and productivity. I would also
like to thank Paul Ashton and Justin Clemens at re.press not only for
their friendship but also for the patience and energy that they have taken
to the project. Of course none of this would have been possible without
Alain Badiou’s decades of work and his generous friendship.
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