Metapolitics

Resumen del libro

In this follow-up to his highly acclaimed volume Ethics, a searing critique of liberalism, Alain Badiou discusses the limits of political philosophy.

Metapolitics argues that one of the main tasks of contemporary thought is to abolish the idea that politics is merely an object for philosophical reflection. Badiou indicts this approach, which reduces politics to a matter of opinion, thus eliminating any of its truly radical and emancipatory possibilities.

Against this intellectual tradition, Badiou proposes instead the consideration of politics in terms of the production of truth and the affirmation of equality. He demands that the question of a possible political truth be separated from any notion of consensus or public opinion, and that political action be rethought in terms of the complex process that binds discussion to decision.

Starting from this analysis, Badiou critically examines the thought of anthropologist and political theorist Sylvain Lazarus, Jacques Rancière's writings on workers' history and democratic dissensus, the role of the subject in Althusser, as well as the concept of democracy and the link between truth and justice.

Biografía del autor

Alain Badiou (Rabat, 1937) es uno de los filósofos contemporáneos más destacados e influyentes. Es también dramaturgo y novelista, profesor emérito en la Universidad de París VIII y de la École Normale Supérieure. Miembro fundador del Partido Socialista y participante activo del Mayo francés, su lucha política y filosófica se funda en la reinvención de políticas emancipatorias basadas en la autonomía y la igualdad. Es autor de numerosos libros, entre los que destacan El ser y el acontecimiento y Lógica de los mundos. Su obra está traducida a varias lenguas.