Greece and the Reinvention of Politics

Resumen del libro

In a series of seven trenchant interventions Alain Badiou analyses the decisive developments in Greece since 2011. Badiou considers this Mediterranean country "a sort of open-air political lesson", with much to tell us about the wider situation. Greece is exemplary of "our fundamental contradictions in Europe, which are also ultimately the fundamental contradictions of the world such as it is-the world served up to the authoritarian anarchy of capitalism." Notwithstanding the Greeks' heartening opposition to the financial markets' hegemony, Badiou considers it also important to address the reasons why this opposition failed.

"Movementist" politics may arouse widespread sympathy, but for the French philosopher they have "absolutely no effect other than to temporarily trap the movement in the negative weakness of its affects." Badiou argues that a consequential opposition inspired by the emancipatory politics of the past-or by what he calls "the communist hypothesis"-should set its compass by the "orienting maxims" proposed in this book, defining a direction for political action.

Biografía del autor

Alain Badiou fue matemático y miembro del partido Comunista antes de llegar a ser un reconocido filósofo. Ha escrito además de Filosofía libros de ficción, novelas y obras de teatro. Su pensamiento está muy influenciado por Hegel y ha incorporado algunos de sus conceptos en su Filosofía. También ha mantenido un intenso diálogo con Slavoj i ek. Sus ideas son controvertidas pero ha sido muy reconocido por su activismo político a favor de la justicia social.