Conditions

A collection of essays of the author. Beginning with a sustained critique of the so-called 'end of philosophy', it goes on to propose a definition of philosophy, one that is tested with respect to both its origin, in Plato, and its contemporary state.

In so doing, Badiou not only develops the complexity of the concepts central to "Being and Event" but also adds new ones to his already formidable arsenal. The essays contained within "Conditions" reveal the extraordinary and systematic nature of Badiou's philosophical enterprise.

The Subtractive: Preface by Francois Wahl
I. Philosophy Itself
1. The (re)turn of philosophy itself
2. Definition of philosophy
3. What is a philosophical institution?
II. Philosophy and Poetry
4. The philosophical recourse to the poem
5. Mallarme's method: subtraction and isolation
6. Rimbaud's method: interruption
III. Philosophy and Mathematics
7. Philosophy and mathematics
8. Conference on subtraction
9. Truth: forcing and unnameable
IV. Philosophy and Politics
10. Philosophy and politics
V. Philosophy and Love
11. What is love?
VI. Philosophy and Psychoanalysis
12. Philosophy and psychoanalysis
13. Subject and infinite
14. Antiphilosophy: Lacan and Plato
VII. Writing of the Generic
15. Writing of the generic: Samuel Beckett.