Briefings on Existence: A Short Treatise on Transitory Ontology

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SUNY Press, Mar 16, 2006 - Philosophy - 202 pages
Explores the link between mathematics and ontology.

This book continues Alain Badiou s project to posit an integral link between mathematics and ontology. Originally published as part of a trilogy in 1998, Briefings on Existence engages the ideas of Deleuze, Spinoza, Plato, Aristotle, and Kant and outlines how the philosophical inquiry into Being and existence converges with the possible world topology of category theory. Set against the background of a multiplication of gods that can be declared dead (the gods of religions, metaphysics, and poetry), Badiou argues that the extension of these events has fallen short of accomplishing its collective promise, but can be achieved through the mathematical understanding of ontology. After several remarkable decades of theoretical invention, French philosophy stands at a crossroads, and Badiou s egalitarian materialism is one of its strongest calls forward.
 

Contents

Alain BadiouBack to the Mathematical Line
1
God is Dead
21
1 THE QUESTION OF BEING TODAY
33
2 MATHEMATICS IS A THOUGHT
45
3 THE EVENT AS TRANSBEING
59
4 DELEUZES VITALIST ONTOLOGY
63
5 SPINOZAS CLOSED ONTOLOGY
73
6 PLATONISM AND MATHEMATICAL ONTOLOGY
89
10 FIRST PROVISIONAL THESES ON LOGIC
119
11THE BEING OF NUMBER
125
12 KANTS SUBTRACTIVE ONTOLOGY
133
13 GROUP CATEGORY SUBJECT
143
14 BEING AND APPEARING
153
ANNEX
169
NOTES
171
CONTRIBUTORS
183

7 THE ARISTOTELIAN ORIENTATION AND LOGIC
101
8LOGIC PHILOSOPHY LINGUISTIC TURN
107
9 FIRST REMARKS ON THE CONCEPT OF TOPOS
115

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About the author (2006)

Alain Badiou is Director of the Department of Philosophy at École Normale Supérieure, Paris. Several of his works have been translated into English, including Manifesto for Philosophy, also published by SUNY Press and also translated by Norman Madarasz, who is Visiting Associate Professor of Philosophy at Universidade Gama Filho, Brazil.

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