Phantom of consistency: Alain Badiou and Kantian transcendental idealism
Continental Philosophy Review 41 (3):345-366 (2008)
Abstract
Immanuel Kant is one of Alain Badiou’s principle philosophical enemies. Kant’s critical philosophy is anathema to Badiou not only because of the latter’s openly aired hatred of the motif of finitude so omnipresent in post-Kantian European intellectual traditions—Badiou blames Kant for inventing this motif—but also because of its idealism. For Badiou-the-materialist, as for any serious philosophical materialist writing in Kant’s wake, transcendental idealism must be dismantled and overcome. In his most recent works, Badiou attempts to invent a non-Kantian notion of the transcendental, a notion compatible with the basic tenets of materialism. However, from 1988’s Being and Event up through the present, Badiou’s oeuvre contains indications that he hasn’t managed fully to purge the traces of Kantian transcendental idealism that arguably continue to haunt his system—with these traces clustering around a concept Badiou christens “counting-for-one”. The result is that, in the end, Kant’s shadow still falls over Badiouian philosophy—this is despite Badiou’s admirable, sophisticated, and instructive attempts to step out from under it—thus calling into question this philosophy’s self-proclaimed status as materialist through and through.Author's Profile
DOI
10.1007/s11007-008-9086-5
My notes
Similar books and articles
Presentation as anti-phenomenon in Alain Badiou's being and event.Ray Brassier - 2006 - Continental Philosophy Review 39 (1):59-77.
The Significance of the Mathematics of Infinity for Realism: Norris on Badiou.Jamie Morgan - 2011 - Journal of Critical Realism 10 (2):243-270.
Review of Alain Badiou, Number and Numbers. [REVIEW]John Kadvany - 2008 - Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2008 (10).
Politics and philosophy an interview with Alain Badiou.Alain Badiou & Peter Hallward - 1998 - Angelaki 3 (3):113 – 133.
Politics and philosophy an interview with Alain Badiou.Peter Hallward & Alain Badiou - 1998 - Angelaki 3 (3):113-133.
Analytics
Added to PP
2009-01-28
Downloads
129 (#98,944)
6 months
7 (#117,875)
2009-01-28
Downloads
129 (#98,944)
6 months
7 (#117,875)
Historical graph of downloads
Author's Profile
Citations of this work
The one, the true, the good… or not: Badiou, Agamben, and atheistic transcendentality.King-Ho Leung - 2021 - Continental Philosophy Review 54 (1):75-97.
Alain Badiou, the Hebb-event, and materialism split from within.Adrian Johnston - 2008 - Angelaki 13 (1):27 – 49.
Negation, Structure, Transformation: Alain Badiou and the New Metaphysics.Becky Vartabedian - 2018 - Open Philosophy 1 (1):213-222.
References found in this work
Critique of pure reason.Immanuel Kant - 1781/1998 - In Elizabeth Schmidt Radcliffe, Richard McCarty, Fritz Allhoff & Anand Vaidya (eds.), Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. Blackwell. pp. 449-451.
[Liminaire sur l'ouvrage d'Alain Badiou “L'etre et l'evenement”].Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, Jacques RanciÈre, Jean-franÇois Lyotard & Alain Badiou - 1989 - le Cahier (Collège International de Philosophie) 8:201-268.