Malebranche: Theological Figure, Being 2 (The Seminars of Alain Badiou)

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. Alain Badiou is perhaps the worlds' 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, retracting 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 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 philosophy 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 Contents ......Page 6 Editors’ Introduction to the English Edition of the Seminars of Alain Badiou by Kenneth Reinhard, Susan Spitzer and Jason E. Smith......Page 8 The Seminars of Alain Badiou (1983–2016): General Preface by Alain Badiou ......Page 12 Introduction to the Seminar on Malebranche: Malebranche’s "Political Ontology”" by Jason E. Smith......Page 22 About the 1986 Seminar on Malebranche by Alain Badiou......Page 36 Session 1: March 4, 1986......Page 42 Session 2: March 11, 1986......Page 70 Session 3: March 18, 1986......Page 94 Session 4: April 15, 1986......Page 122 Session 5: April 29, 1986......Page 142 Session 6: May 6, 1986......Page 170 Session 7: May 27, 1986......Page 196 Notes ......Page 218 Index ......Page 224