Alain Badiou is one of France's most important contemporary philosophers. He teaches at the Ecole Normale Superleure and the College International de Philosophie in Paris. Oliver Feltham, the translator, teaches literature and theatre at Ecole Massillon, Paris.
."...The payoff for working through Badiou's text is nothing less
than a revitalization of philosophy.... the publication of Being
and Event itself is precisely what Badiou means when he writes of
an 'event' something that disrupts the current situation.... And
for those who may be interested by Deleuze but are wedded to more
traditionally analytic ways of writing: Badiou's writing is often
praised for its clarity and in many ways it mimes the economy of
analytic philosophy, avoiding the obscurity (while preserving the
density) of many of his French contemporaries.... While he is not
immune to some amount of obscurity in some others of his writings,
Being and Event certainly cannot be so faulted. At worst one might
fault the author for demanding too much of his reader; but if this
be a fault it is an admirable one to have, since it is a rare
author indeed who can make such a demand." -Michael Kim, The
Symptom, Online Journal for Lacan.com
"To describe Being and Event as a difficult text would be an
understatement. However, for all of its fearsomeness, Badiou is a
kind an patient teacher, leading the reader through both the
intricacies of set theory and the history of philosophy with a calm
and steady hand...Originally published in France in 1988, Being and
Event is without a doubt Badiou's magnum opus....Throughout Being
and Event Badiou proposes intricate yet extremely bold conceptions
of the categories of being, the event, the subject, and truth,
inaugurating a new idea of philosophy itself, though he claims that
there is nothing in his analysis that can't already be found in the
history of philosophy and mathematics...Whether Badiou takes credit
for it or not, it is clear that Being and Event brilliantly
performs this synthesis of philosophy and mathematics against a
backdrop of a theoretical environment grown stale with in-fighting
and a debilitating fear of grand ideas. Badiou's Being and Event
lays waste to that timidity with an astonishing force." -Nina
Power, Philosophy in Review
''Being and Event', here translated from the French by Feltham, is
evidence of Badiou's engagement across a range of critical
disciplines within the Western intellectual tradition.' Tim
Huntley, Flux Magazine, 01/09/2006
'A book of exceptional scope and rare courage of thought that
tackles the whole of Philosophy, from Parmenides to Heidegger.'
Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe
'A significant book, one which one cannot fail to find staggering.'
Jean Francois-Lyotard
'Being and Event is one of the most significant texts in recent
European thought ... This is Badiou's magnum opus.' Keith Ansell
Pearson, Univeristy of Warwick
'One of the most important philosophers writing today.' Joan
Copjec
"Oliver Feltham's long-awaited translation of "Being and Event "has
finally made Badiou's seminal work available to English-speaking
readers. This is a major publishing event." Dan Smith, Purdue
University
' Badiou has a large and ambitious system, and in Being and Event
he gives it its most comprehensive exposition.' Hugh
Lawson-Tancred, The Liberal, March 2009
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