Seminars of Alain Badiou #: Malebranche

Theological Figure, Being 2

Seminars of Alain Badiou #: Malebranche
Alain Badiou, Kenneth Reinhard, Susan Spitzer, Jason E Smith
RRP:
NZ$ 52.99
Our Price:
NZ$ 43.72
Paperback
h216 x 140mm - 240pg
27 Jul 2021 US
International import eta 10-30 days
9780231174794
Out Of Stock
Currently no stock in-store, stock is sourced to your order
Alain Badiou is perhaps the world' s most significant living philosopher. In his annual seminars on major topics and pivotal figures, Badiou developed vital aspects of his thinking on a range of subjects that he would go on to explore in his influential works. In this seminar, Badiou offers a tour de force encounter with a lesser-known seventeenth-century philosopher and theologian, Nicolas Malebranche, a contemporary and peer of Spinoza and Leibniz. The seminar is at once a record of Badiou' s thought at a key moment in the years before the publication of his most important work, Being and Event, and a lively interrogation of Malebranche' s key text, the Treatise on Nature and Grace. Badiou develops a rigorous yet novel analysis of Malebranche' s theory of grace, retracing his claims regarding the nature of creation and the relation between God and world and between God and Jesus. Through Malebranche, Badiou develops a radical concept of truth and the subject. This book renders a seemingly obscure post-Cartesian philosopher fascinating and alive, restoring him to the philosophical canon. It occupies a pivotal place in Badiou' s reflections on the nature of being that demonstrates the crucial role of theology in his thinking.

Malebranche: Theological Figure, Being 2

I devoured this magnificent work in an evening. It blends Badiou' s usual systematic approach with a nuanced account of seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century philosophy that draws skillful contrasts between Malebranche' s system and those of Arnauld, Bossuet, Leibniz, Pascal, and the Jesuits. Hovering over the scene is the unlikely but finally compelling specter of Jacques Lacan. -- Graham Harman, author of Object-Oriented Ontology: A New Theory of Everything Malebranche emerges from this seminar as an author divided between an asphyxiating theological doctrine and an exhilarating theory of the subject, which anticipates many ideas about desire, fantasy, finitude, and grace that will appear much later, from Hegel to Lacan. Even though Badiou claims that nothing productive came from his effort, we can appreciate in this new installment of his seminar a crucial stepping stone between Theory of the Subject and Being and Event. -- Bruno Bosteels, author of Badiou and Politics This book tackles Malebranche through Alain Badiou' s unique perspective. Badiou nicely translates questions of theology into questions of politics, bringing Malebranche a contemporary resonance that he doesn' t have in any other account. -- Todd McGowan, author of Emancipation After Hegel: Achieving a Contradictory Revolution The book reads very well, and the translation is as excellent as one would expect from this team. . . . Anyone curious about Malebranche, or wishing to recall things they used to know about him, should enjoy Badiou' s presentation; and anyone who appreciates solid philosophical exegeses and a bit of intellectual flair should be very entertained and provoked by this seminar as well. -- Ed Pluth * Notre Dame Philosophical Review * Malebranche is a must-read for Marxists, Philosophers, Theologians, and anyone interested in the Philosophy of Alain Badiou. -- Dalton Winfree * Marx and Philosophy Review of Books * A fascinating interrogation of a thinker much ignored in the English-speaking world by a leading contemporary philosopher. * Choice * Malebranche is Badiou' s most richly theological work . . . Like nearly all of Badiou' s writing, it is conceptually difficult and challenging, but immensely rewarding. * Modern Theology *
Alain Badiou is emeritus professor of philosophy at the Ecole normale superieure in Paris. His Columbia University Press books include Plato' s Republic: A Dialogue in Sixteen Chapters (2015) and Lacan: Anti-Philosophy 3 (2018). Jason E. Smith is chair of the Graduate Art MFA program at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California. He has written widely on contemporary philosophy and translated Alain Badiou and Elisabeth Roudinesco' s Jacques Lacan, Past and Present: A Dialogue (Columbia, 2014). He is currently writing a book on automation and work. Susan Spitzer is a frequent translator of Badiou' s works.
Status: Active
ISBN-13: 9780231174794
Published: 27 Jul 2021
Published In: United States
Imprint: Columbia University Press
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Format: Paperback
Height: 216mm
Width: 140mm
Pages: 240

In stock - for items in stock we aim to dispatch the next business day. For delivery in NZ allow 2-5 business days, with rural taking a wee bit longer.

Locally sourced in NZ - stock comes from a NZ supplier with an approximate delivery of 7-15 business days.

International Imports - stock is imported into NZ, depending on air or sea shipping option from the international supplier stock can take 10-30 working days to arrive into NZ. 

Pre-order Titles - delivery will vary depending on where the title is published, if local stock is available in NZ then 5-7 business days, for international imports it can be 10-30 business days. In all cases we will access the quickest supply option.

Delivery Packaging - we ship all items in cardboard sleeves or by box with either packing paper or corn starch chips. (We avoid using plastics bubble bags)

Tracking - Orders are delivered by track and trace courier and are fully insured, tracking information will be sent by email once dispatched.

View our full Order & Delivery information