A bit more on Badiou

I did say that I knew it wasn’t going to be popular, didn’t I? And I can’t say I didn’t ask for it! But, yes, hands up, I have not read the two big books. I read two little books (Metapolitics and Ethics) and realised quite quickly that Badiou was – at best – ‘cultural studies lite’. (And I know that this formulation is going to enrage people. But the problem does seem to be that philosophy needs its examples, but then can’t be bothered to actually study them, and so contents itself with little asides...). So I wrote a quick polemic. Then people turn around and say ‘you can't say that until you've read every last word of Badiou’. And I see the point. But, I wonder, why would anyone read all of something or someone when 100% of the two books already read is not very compelling in any particular way? How many people who regard Jeffrey Archer as a bad novelist can back this up with exhaustive research? Why would they? ... Still, there are of course the matters of intellectual responsibility and diligence even in the blogosphere, so, I've ordered both of the big ‘Bad’ books and will read them on holiday in a few weeks and get back to you...

 

In the meantime, there’s this to nod along to or get annoyed with:

 

http://buymeout.wordpress.com/2009/06/10/badiou-and-the-future-of-philosophy/