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Philosophy In The Present (2009)

by Alain Badiou(Favorite Author)

3.52 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0745640974 (ISBN13: 9780745640976)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Polity Press

review 1: This is so short, I'll probably read it again, but I felt somewhat cheated by the desultory treatment of the topic on a first read. It was like surveilling two philosophers' Live Journals. Badiou's essay was interesting, but not brilliant. Zizek's combination of insight and smart-ass irreverence were as usual entertaining, but left me, as ever, thinking that the level of worship he inspires is more than just a little idiotic. I might go so far as to say it's symptomatic of everything I find wrong with contemporary twenty something culture. The discussion between the two was somewhat disappointing and definitely skippable. At least with Baudrillard, Derrida, Lyotard and other continental philosophers and post-structuralists, you come away with a sense of maniacal genius eve... moren when the work is opaque. These two thinkers are considerably less enjoyable, if more 'accessible'.
review 2: It's taken from a a discussion with the two, and the conversational tone manages to be formal yet accessible. Badiou really does a good job of showing where he thinks philosophy and political praxis interacts, and he uses several good examples to show what sorts of problems philosophy can solve. The '8 theses' section confused the hell out of me. I'm not really familiar with Badiou's overall philosophical system, but I found his reliance on dense mathematical vocabulary to be almost un-parsable. Zizek's conversation is a bit more enjoyable and less wooden, he just sort of rambles on for a bit, throwing out prescient observations informed by modern cultural/political events. He never reaches any overall point, but its pretty enjoyable to follow his thinking. The third section where the two talk to each other is less of an discussion and more of an over-clarification session for each others ideas. Not a bad little book overall, at only a brief hundred pages, its not the deepest of writings, but it is fairly accessible by the standards of their respective works. less

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