UFPPC ( www.ufppc.org ) Digging Deeper CLII March 7,
2011, 7:00 p.m.
Alain Badiou,
Ethics: An Essay on the Understanding of Evil
(London and NewYork: Verso, 2002). Translated by Peter Hallward. This translation firstpublished 2001; original French edition published 1993.
[
Thesis.
The ethics advanced by thecontemporary era is nihilistic; in order to saveethics, it must be defined as an "ethic of particular truths." This is the ethics that protectsagainst
terror, betrayal,
and
disaster
(but "radicalEvil" does not, according to Badiou, exist).]
Translator's Introduction [2001].
Badioudistinguishes a realm of knowledge, which isalways "structured in dominance," and a realm of truth, which through a subjective procedureevades this domination by an "event" that breakswith the ordinary situation in the domains of art,love, science, or politics; ethics has to do withfidelity to this event (vii-xvi). The relation of hisapproach to Lacan and Kant (xvi-xxi). Badiou'sethics is "so fundamentally at odds with the viewthat generally prevails in the Anglo-Americanacademy as to be almost unreadable" (xxi-xxii).Badiou abandons contemporary ethics' focus onotherness (xxi-xxx). Some questions for Badiou(xxx-xxxv).
Notes on the Translation.
Badiou's languageis unproblematic (xlix-li).
Preface to the English Edition.
This book wasprovoked by the "'ethical' delirium" of the 1990s,after the end of the Cold War (liii-lv).Ideologically, the ex-Maoist Badiou regretsnothing; he favors dissolving NATO and theInternational Criminal Court (lv). From thetheoretical point of view, this is an unfinishedwork (lv-lviii).
Introduction.
By taking issue withcontemporary discourse on ethics, this bookproposes a completely different understanding of ethics (1-3).
Ch. 1: Does Man Exist?
The ideology of therights of man is based on natural rights; it isreactionary and out-of-date (4-5).
I. The deathof Man?
The philosophy of the 1960s was theopposite of indifferent to humanity (5-7).
II. Thefoundations of the ethic of human rights.
These foundations, which are based on Kant andpretend to be self-evident, are in factunsustainable (8-10).
III. Man: Living animalor immortal singularity?
This ethics is foundedon the idea of man "
as a victim
" (10). In reality,the worst ordeals demonstrate man's capacity toaffirm himself as something "
other than a mortalbeing
" (12; 10-12). The ideology of man asvictim is a mask of power (12-13). This ideologyalso makes of collective action a source of evil(13-15). It does not take into account "singularsituations" (15-16).
IV. Some principles.
Threetheses: 1. Man defines himself positively. 2. Evilis founded on the refusal of positive action. 3.There are only situations. "There is no ethics ingeneral" (16).
Ch. 2: Does the Other Exist?
It is Lévinas whogave priority to
the other
(18).
I. Ethicsaccording to Lévinas.
Summary of Lévinas(18-20).
II. The 'ethics of difference.'
Multiculturalism derives from this philosophy(20).
III. From the Other to the Altogether-Other.
But Lévinas's reasoning on the Same andthe Other is illogical (21-23).
IV. Ethics asdecomposed [
décomposée
] religion.
It is a"pious discourse without piety," as we see by thefact that "the self-declared apostles of ethics . . .are clearly
horrified by any vigorously sustaineddifference
(23; 24, emphasis in original; 23-24).
V. Return to the Same.
We must abandon thisentire approach in order to return to the questionof the Same.
VI. 'Cultural' differences andculturalism.
A sort of tourist colonialismunderlies the present passion for other cultures,but these differences are of "no interest forthought" (26; 26-27).
VII. From the Same totruths.
Truths by definition are the same for all:this should be the basis of ethics. But "ethicsdoes not exist. There is only the "
ethic-of
(of politics, of love, of science, of art) . . . it isimpossible to speak of
one
Ethics" (28, emphasisin original; 27-28).
Ch. 3: Ethics as a Figure of Nihilism.
Thecontemporary world cannot "strive for a Good"(30).
I. Ethics as the servant of necessity
.Badiou denounces contemporary politics as at theservice of Capital (30-34).
II. Ethics as the'Western' mastery of death.
Ethics is nihilisticin its negativity (34-35).
III. Bio-ethics.
Euthanasia as an exemplary case (35-38). But"every definition of Man based on happiness isnihilist" (37).
IV. Ethical nihilism betweenconservatism and the death drive.
Since"our societies are without a future that can bepresented as universal," ethics alternatesbetween conservatism and "a murderous desire"(38). We must instead affirm the "possibility of the impossible," as in "every loving encounter,every scientific re-foundation, every artisticinvention and every sequence of emancipatorypolitics" (39).
Ch. 4: The Ethic of Truths.
Badiou tries to finda way to "preserve this word
ethics
" (40).
I.Being, event, truth, subject.
There is noethics in general because there is no "abstractSubject" (40). "There is only a particular kind of animal" in particular circumstances "of a truth"(41; 40-41). The particular subject is created bya fidelity to an event that he chooses (41-42). "Ishall call 'truth' (
a
truth) the real process of afidelity to an event" (42). This subject is not thepsychological subject (43-44).
II. Formaldefinition of the ethic of a truth.
The "ethicof a truth" is "
that which lends consistency to thepresence of some-one in the composition of thesubject induced by the process of this truth
" (44).Commentary, with reference to Lacan (44-48).
III. The experience of ethical 'consistency.'
Two examples: 1) "ethical consistency manifestsitself as
disinterested interest
" (49; 48-50); 2)every truth is opposed to
opinions,
which are"representations without truth, the anarchicdebris of circulating knowledge" (50; 50-52).
IV.Asceticism?
Ethics is "literally
asocial
," butperhaps not necessarily ascetic (54; 53-56).
Ch. 5: The Problem of Evil.
Must we refuse thevalidity of the notion of Evil? (58).
A. Life,truths, and the Good.
We cannot define evilthrough a general analysis of "what is harmful toMan" (58). Evil has to be thought "from thestarting point of the Good" (60; 59-61).
B. Onthe existence of Evil.
Badiou rejectsidentifying the Holocaust with a "radical Evil,"which according to him does not exist (61-66).But "Evil exists" (66). The ethic of truths is what"tries to ward off the Evil that every singular truthmakes possible" (67).
C. Return to the event,fidelity and truth.
Evil has three names:
terror
(to imagine that an event represents a completesituation);
betrayal
(to fail to be faithful);
disaster
(to identify a truth with total power (71; 67-71).
D. Outline of a theory of Evil. 1.Simulacrum and terror.
Nazism interpretedphilosophically (72-77).
2. Betrayal.
The defeatof the ethic of a truth is different from simplerenunciation (78-80).
3. The unnameable.
"Every absolutization of the power of a truthorganizes an Evil" (85; 80-87).
Conclusion.
Summary of the argument (90-91).
Appendix: Politics and Philosophy: AnInterview with Alain Badiou [1998].
Sincethe end of the 1970s, Badiou has been practicing"politics without a party" (95-98). "For us thismeans, concretely: don't stand for election, don'tvote, don't expect anything from any politicalparty" (99). L'Organisation Politique, publishing
La Distance politique
, is very small (100-01).Marx's analysis of capital stands (105). Cuba(106-07). Politics and culture;
négritude,
"Jew,""Christian" (107-19). Platonism (119-20). Lacan(121-22). Religion (122-24). Philosophy asexperience (124-27). Mathematics (127-30). "Iam a materialist" (130; 130-31). "I acceptabsolutely that man is an animal and, in a certainsense, nothing else" (133; 133-35). Badiou isrevising his concept of relationship (135-38). Thestatus of truth (138-42).
Bibliography.
18 pp.
Index.
4 pp.
About the Author.
Alain Badiou
teachesphilosophy at the Ecole Normale Supérieure andthe Collège International de Philosophie in Paris.][
Additional information.
Alain Badiou
wasborn in Rabat, Morocco, on Jan. 17, 1937. Son of a math teacher active in the Resistance who wasmayor of Toulouse from 1944 to 1958, AlainBadiou was first in his class at the École NormaleSupérieure in 1960 and taught philosophy inRheims, first in a lycée and then in the university.A left Socialist, he embraced Maoism in 1969. Hecontributed to the development of Paris-VIII(Vincennes, later Saint-Denis) for thirty years. In1999 he became a professor at the ÉcoleNormale Supérieure; he is currently emeritus atthat prestigious institution. He has also taught atthe Collège international de philosophie, foundedin 1983 by Jacques Derrida and others. He nowteaches at the European Graduate School inSwitzerland. His work is marked by theinfluence of Louis Althusser (1918-1990). Badioumaintains an ontology based on mathematics (settheory), identifies phenomenology with logic, andarrives at the conclusion that nothing belongs tothe self. As he maintains that the concept of theevent depends on such self-belonging, the eventdoes not exist. In politics, he is unapologeticabout his engagement with Communism; whiledenouncing its excesses, he also denouncesliberal democracy as a tool of capitalistpropaganda; on this point and many others, he isferociously criticized, with some going so far as toaccuse him of anti-Semitism. Others maintainthat his philosophy is so abstract and elitist that itis nothing but a chic form of radicalism incapableof really affecting power or social life. Yet heinsists that philosophy should address itself to theproblems of its time and denies the existence of eternal problems. Badiou rejects postmodernismand his politics, finally, is a sort of faithfulness tothe historic cause of a revolutionary quest foregalitarian justice: in this sense he is an heir of Jean-Paul Sartre. "Badiou's philosophy has beencharacterized as a mixture of Plato's belief inabsolute truth and Sartre's emphasis on personaldecision and action," said Jennifer Wallace in2006 in the
Times Higher Education Supplement
.His recent books (
Le siècle
[2005];
De quoiSarkozy est-il le nom ?
[2007]) have sold well. Heis perhaps the living French philosopher the best
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Badiou - Ethics (2001 [1993]) - Synopsis
Synopsis of Alain Badiou, Ethics: An Essay on the Understanding of Evil (London and New York: Verso, 2002). Translated by Peter Hallward. -- Discussed at Digging Deeper (www.ufppc.org) on March 7, 2011.
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