Alain Badiou. Destruction, Negation, Subtraction. 2007 10/10

[thebloads]

i have watched many of these egs videos of badiou, but i cant help coming to the conclusion that he reducues ontology to mathematics. He seems to appropriate mathematics for his own ontology, not because it is an "appropriate" ontology, but because he bends ontology to fit mathematics. I cannot see why a visionary like Zizek would constantly effuse with praise for him. Can someone explain if i am mistaken?

[Krelianx]

@thebloads Well, Badiou explicitly identifies ontology with mathematics, so surprise there! I don't think saying he 'bends' ontology is very useful, because this seem to assume that in fact the identification of it with math is inadequate. If that is your point of contention, then there must be some other argument. You can say that every ontology is made to fit certain paradigms: say, the law of non contradiction and the excluded middle. The question is why math would be inadequate.

[Krelianx]

Oh God would I have loved to just sit and listen to these two going at it for all night. I'm not sure whether Badiou's idea that violence is included (a part of) the situation works though; Agamben makes a similar point signaling that the role of exception would have to be a singular term (presented in the situation but not re-presented by the State of the situation). The problem is that sovereign exception includes the very form of singularity as part of the State.