Badiou & Žižek: Philosophy in the Present
Two controversial thinkers discuss a timeless but nonetheless urgent question: should philosophy interfere in the world?
Nothing less than philosophy is at stake because, according to Badiou, philosophy is nothing but interference and commitment and will not be restrained by academic discipline. Philosophy is strange and new, and yet speaks in the name of all – as Badiou shows with his theory of universality.
Similarly, Zizek believes that the philosopher must intervene, contrary to all expectations, in the key issues of the time. He can offer no direction, but this only shows that the question has been posed incorrectly: it is valid to change the terms of the debate and settle on philosophy as abnormality and excess.
At once an invitation to philosophy and an introduction to the thinking of two of the most topical and controversial philosophers writing today, this concise volume will be of great interest to students and general readers alike.
This is wonderful. I cannot afford to purchase these excellent books you are making available. Thank you!
thanks!!!
I don’t know what about you guys, but here these books, specially those ON Zizek, are fucking expensive. This man is a Saint.
For many reasons, I’m actually obliged to buy this stuff, but I can do it only by ordering it from Madrid, and damn, it’s too much money.
Here in Spain we say something like “my pocket hurts”.
thks very much
dont know if it is the same in spain but “first as tragedy” is 9 euro in english and 19 euros in french!
Thank you for transcribing this, much appreciated.
Thanks for this Mariborchan. I felt with this i’d be spending a lot of money I barely have on a book so small, despite it’s great authors.
I’m a little bit disappointed since i thought that this publication would contain new and current stuff from Zizek and i’m now recognizing that his was already published in 2005 in german language. Nervertheless, thanks for uploading this!
@Mariborchan
I was sort of hyped up by this encounter, but it was very elementary and broad. I would have liked to see them tackle the arena of their disagreements: the status of the Real, whether religion operates as a fourth condition, the distinction between act and event.
you rock mariborchan!
@absinth1987
Could you provide some information about the German publication you mentioned? Like an ISBN number?
Many thanks for the book! Interesting blog.
@Mariborchan
it’s called “Philosophie und Aktualität” published by Passagen-Verlag in 2005. http://www.passagen.at/cms/index.php?id=62&isbn=9783851656732&L=0
re: Daniel Sacilotto: 1) I don’t know that they disagree about the ’status’ of the Real – it is decidedly not a ’status’ – it precisely resists ’states.’ 2) Surely religion, as opposed to political theology, is not a condition, but a mode of institutionalizing in some situation for the sake of generating power – though certainly it often involves events in the background (Christ/Event–>Paul (acting) amidst political/theological turmoil viz. the Event–>the instituting of the Catholic Church- only here is religion per se). 3) act is the subject authentically – to put it simply – relating to the event. I think of them as deploying these concepts along different avenues, rather than disagreeing so much, as they have different projects, which is apparent on close reading of this and other texts. But surely at certain levels there are points of divergence – time and study will reveal: they won’t do our work for us; we shouldn’t expect them to. But look at A. Johnston’s fantastic new study “Badiou, Zizek, and Political Transformations.”
Simon@Mariborchan: Companero! Keep up the great work! Caught a few minor typos in my first run through:
1) p14 final line: “…why Socrates’ methods in third dialogue are hardly” – presumably “the dialogue” ?
2) p19 line 2: It will tell s that ‘we must think the event’. -presume “us”
3) p23: 6th line from bottom: “weapons of mas destruction”
4) translator’s note 1: “Shurkamp” – rather “Suhrkamp”
As a mere suggestion for future consideration: since printing out these sorts of things is often desirable, and most of us are getting these things for budgetary reasons, perhaps a smaller font to save paper and ink? I cut and paste my copy into a word-processing document but then had to do a great deal of editing. Used very readable TNR 12pt on the primary text and 10pt on the rest to reduce it from 70 to 30 pages.
Can’t thank you enough for your awesome website.