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The cover can be displayed as a complete cover image for the purposes of publicizing this work however the artwork cannot be extracted from the context of the cover of this specific work without breaching the artists copyright. Support re.press / Purchasing Books The PDF you are reading is an electronic version of a physical book that can be purchased through any bookseller (including on-line stores), through the normal book supply channels, or re.press directly. Please support this open access publication by requesting that your uni- versity purchase a physical printed copy of this book, or by purchasing a copy yourself. If you have any questions please contact the publisher: re.press PO Box 75 Seddon, 3011 Victoria Australia [email protected] www.re-press.org The Praxis of Alain Badiou Anamnesis Anamnesis means remembrance or reminiscence, the collection and re- collection of what has been lost, forgotten, or effaced. It is therefore a matter of the very old, of what has made us who we are. But anamnesis is also a work that transforms its subject, always producing something new. To recollect the old, to produce the new: that is the task of Anamnesis. a re.press series re.press The Praxis of Alain Badiou Paul Ashton, A. J. Bartlett and Justin Clemens, editors re.press Melbourne 2006 First published 2006 by re.press 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 al- ter, transform or build on the work outside of its use in normal academic 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 website: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ Published by re.press PO Box 75 Seddon, 3011 Melbourne, Australia http://re-press.org Typeset by A&R in Baskerville Printed on demand wherever it is desired. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry The praxis of Alain Badiou. Bibliography. Includes index. ISBN 9780980305203. ISBN 0 9803052 0 9. 1. Badiou, Alain. 2. Events (Philosophy) - History. 3. Ontology - History. 4. Philosophers, French. I. Ashton, Paul, 1974- . II. Bartlett, A. J. (Adam John). III. Clemens, Justin. (Series : Anamnesis). 111 This publication benefited from a small grant from the Institute for Community Engagement and Policy Alternatives (ICEPA) at Victoria University, Australia. Contents Abbreviations vii Acknowledgements ix INTRODUCTION Masters & Disciples: Institution, Philosophy, Praxis 3 Paul Ashton, A. J. Bartlett & Justin Clemens What is a Philosophical Institution? Or: Address, Transmission, Inscription 13 Alain Badiou SCIENCE The Law of the Subject: Alain Badiou, Luitzen Brouwer and the Kripkean Analyses of Forcing and the Heyting Calculus 23 Zachary Fraser The Limits of the Subject in Badiou’s Being and Event 71 Brian Anthony Smith Had we but worlds enough, and time, this absolute, philosopher… 102 Justin Clemens LOVE Count-as-one, Forming-into-one, Unary Trait, S1 147 Lorenzo Chiesa Introduction to Sam Gillespie 177 Sigi Jöttkandt Giving Form to Its Own Existence: Anxiety and the Subject of Truth 180 Sam Gillespie Conditional Notes on a New Republic 210 A. J. Bartlett ART An Explosive Genealogy: Theatre, Philosophy and the Art of Presentation 247 Oliver Feltham Ontology and Appearing: Documentary Realism as a Mathematical Thought 265 Lindsey Hair Can Cinema Be Thought? Alain Badiou and the Artistic Condition 291 Alex Ling POLITICS Towards an Anthropology of Infinitude: Badiou and the Political Subject 309 Nina Power The Bourgeois and the Islamist, or, The Other Subjects of Politics 339 Alberto Toscano Philosophy and Revolution: Badiou’s Infidelity to the Event 367 Toula Nicolacopoulos and George Vassilacopoulos Follysophy 388 Dominique Hecq Bibliography of Work on and by Alain Badiou in English 393 Contributors 419 Index 421 Abbreviations C Conditions CT Court traité d’ontologie transitoire D Deleuze: The Clamor of Being E Ethics: An Essay on the Understanding of Evil EE L’être et l’événement BE Being and Event HI Handbook of Inaesthetics IT Infinite Thought: Truth and the Return to Philosophy LM/LOW Logiques des mondes: l’être et l’événement, 2 LS Le Siècle M Metapolitics MP Manifesto for Philosophy NN Le Nombre et les nombres OB On Beckett P Polemics SP Saint Paul: The Foundation of Universalism TO Briefings On Existence: A Short Treatise on Transitory Ontology TC The Century TS Théorie du sujet TW Theoretical Writings vii