Woebot
Well-known member
Like a good boy I've been reading Badiou's "Infinite Thought". It's not at all difficult in fact, and he's a charming, gentle and good-natured guide. What he says can be more or less distilled thus:
Analytic, Hermeneutic and Post-Modern Philosophy, the BIG THREE, variously miss the point by failing to re-align Philosophy with the essential principle of truth. Badiou looks to Maths and set-theory to help him unfreeze Philosophy and handle "truth".
Interestingly however, Badiou is not nearly as dogmatic about what constitutes the truth as some observers would lead one to suspect. While he's shy of the rampant subjectivism of Post-Modernist thought he comes down very heavily on people who claim to have pinned down truth:
"Consequently, a reasonable ethic of mathmatics is not to wish to force this point; to accept that a mathmatical truth is never complete. But this reasonable ethic is difficult to maintain. As can be seen with scientism, or with totalitarianism, there is always a desire for the omnipotence of the True. There lies the root of Evil. Evil is the will to name at any price."
Analytic, Hermeneutic and Post-Modern Philosophy, the BIG THREE, variously miss the point by failing to re-align Philosophy with the essential principle of truth. Badiou looks to Maths and set-theory to help him unfreeze Philosophy and handle "truth".
Interestingly however, Badiou is not nearly as dogmatic about what constitutes the truth as some observers would lead one to suspect. While he's shy of the rampant subjectivism of Post-Modernist thought he comes down very heavily on people who claim to have pinned down truth:
"Consequently, a reasonable ethic of mathmatics is not to wish to force this point; to accept that a mathmatical truth is never complete. But this reasonable ethic is difficult to maintain. As can be seen with scientism, or with totalitarianism, there is always a desire for the omnipotence of the True. There lies the root of Evil. Evil is the will to name at any price."