The One: Descartes, Plato, Kant

Alain Badiou

Published by Columbia University Press 2023

The One

Descartes, Plato, Kant

Alain Badiou
With contributions by: Kenneth Reinhard
Translated by: Jacques Lezra and Susan Spitzer

In the series The Seminars of Alain Badiou

https://doi.org/10.7312/badi19412

Overview
Contents

About this book

Alain Badiou’s 1983–1984 lecture series focuses on the philosophical concept of oneness in the works of Descartes, Plato, and Kant—a crucial foil for his signature metaphysical concept, the multiple.

Author / Editor information

Alain Badiou is emeritus professor of philosophy at the École normale supérieure in Paris. His seminars published by Columbia University Press include Lacan (2018), Malebranche (2019), and Images of the Present Time (2023).

Jacques Lezra is professor and chair of Hispanic studies at the University of California, Riverside.

Susan Spitzer is a frequent translator of Badiou’s works.

Kenneth Reinhard is research professor of comparative literature and English at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Reviews

Jelica Šumič Riha, Institute of Philosophy, ZRC SAZU, Slovenia:
In this daring and challenging work, Badiou, one of the most fascinating and intellectually provocative thinkers of our time, provides a remarkable examination of the impasses of the metaphysics of the One in Descartes, Plato, and Kant. Badiou adapts their grappling with the equivalence of being and one to his own project of thinking the proper object of philosophy: the triad of events, truths, and subjects setting out from the idea that being is detached from the One. Knitting together mathematics and philosophy, Badiou makes a compelling demand for what he calls The Critique of Evental Reason.

Frank Ruda, author of For Badiou: Idealism without Idealism:
Badiou’s seminar is a space of conceptual experimentation and system creation, bringing together rigorous critique of contemporary ideology with innovative returns to major figures from the history of philosophy. This book, which also provides incisive introductory material, demonstrates the power of Badiou’s method. His readings of Descartes, Plato, and Kant not only are genuinely inventive, they also attest to the creation of one of the most significant philosophical endeavors of our era, Badiou’s own.

Todd McGowan, author of Enjoyment Right & Left:
The publication of Alain Badiou’s seminar The One is a major event for the philosopher of the event. When reading it, one has a sense of thinking alongside a great thinker as he formulates one of his central ideas—the distinction between the One and the count-as-one. Come to this seminar for Badiou’s most in-depth analysis of how the One functions and leave with the incredible bonus of magisterial interpretations of Descartes, Plato, and Kant. This is Badiou at his very best and at his most accessible. The perfect introduction to his foundational work Being and Event.

Sigi Jöttkandt, author of First Love: A Phenomenology of the One:
Alain Badiou’s seminars are essential to understanding the evolution of his thought. This much-awaited collection of Badiou’s teachings enables the English-speaking world to experience the ‘true heart’ of his philosophy.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Editors’ Introduction to the English Edition of the Seminars of Alain Badiou Kenneth Reinhard, Susan Spitzer and Jason E. Smith Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
The Seminars of Alain Badiou (1983–2016): General Preface Alain Badiou Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Introduction to Alain Badiou’s seminar The One (1983–1984) Kenneth Reinhard Publicly Available Download PDF	xxi
About the 1983–84 Seminar on the One Alain Badiou Publicly Available Download PDF	xxxv
Session 1. November 11, 1983 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Session 2. December 6, 1983 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	19
Session 3. December 13, 1983 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	41
Session 4. December 20, 1983 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	57
Session 5. January 10, 1984 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	75
Session 6. January 17, 1984 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	89
Session 7. January 31, 1984 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	95
Session 8. February 7, 1984 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	105
Session 9. February 28, 1984 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	117
Session 10. March 13, 1984 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	129
Session 11. March 20, 1984 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	143
Session 12. March 27, 1984 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	161
Session 13. April 17, 1984 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	177
Session 14. May 15, 1984 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	187
Session 15. May 22, 1984 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	205
Session 16. June 19, 1984 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	219
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	231
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	237

Language: English
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;

eBook

Published: August 3, 2023
ISBN: 9780231550666