Alain Badiou

is the philosopher, 

of a unique power in these times,

 

Author of a hundred books,

four of which are essential to philosophy.

Outstanding speaker.

Author of countless lectures and oral interventions.

in all the world.

He is also one of the most recognized philosophers... :

.... translated into 43 languages ...including Chinese...

 

He is the philosopher

in a lineage 

-Parmenides, Plato, Spinoza, Cantor, Lacan-

who has produced the necessary synthesis

of a contemporary thought

well started again.

 

Contemporary thought

necessarily new 

since,

after an immense movement of thought

started with the declaration of Schopenhauer's work

followed by the works of Cantor, Freud, Lacan .....,

it was necessary to stop thinking of the anthrope

capable a priori in itself of producing reason.

 

It was necessary to think him 

- anthrope subject -

not central to itself,

a crossroads of others,

subject of an unconscious,

and thus subjected subject

but infinitely un-finished.

 

It was necessary to think him 

- anthrope subject -

no longer by an innate reason,

but necessarily by the reception of the event 

and faithful to it,

the indeed, rare

capable Subject

of this Reason by event.

 

The work of Alain Badiou 

fruit of hard work,

of absolute dignity,

during decades 

of study and structured assimilation

of the whole thread of thought since Parmenides

is presided over by four great books.

(He himself says that these are the last three in the following list,

but with Zizek, and others, I think there are four).

 

*

 

Theory of the Subject

 

Is the book that required the writing of the next three.

 

Here are Badiou's words about his book,

(This words can be found here)

 

"To say that the subject is process 

and even as the book says,

 a braid of processes, 

is at the same time 

to deponctualise it 

- it is not a cause, it is not a source, a foundation, an originary self-certainty -, 

and detotalise it 

- it is not the absolute of the spirit, the reason of the history of the world, 

it is not the integral recollection of experience. 

For this double operation of deponctualisation-detotalisation,

a whole series of procedures must be implemented 

because neither experience nor knowledge, 

deliver the subject. 

The subject is not an intimacy, 

nor is it a transcendence. 

It is an effectuation. 

Moreover, 

and this is a flat but essential point, 

it is or it is not, 

in other words, it is not inherent in any experience." 

 

or 

 

"We must therefore return to the subject 

as a particular process. 

This particularity 

is to construct it

through a series of procedures 

that is, dialectical notions 

whose ensemble will constitute 

what we could call 

a materialist logic.

This is what a large part of the book is basically devoted to." 

 

 

All philosophy,

all Western thought,

after Plato till the XIX century,

has thought to construct the opposite.

Hence the need 

for a new beginning of thought

which Badiou carried out...alone.

 

In my mind, 'Theory of the Subject'

and to help me,

is synthesised in one of its sentences

engaging and demanding this recommencement of thought: 

 

'The subject is to be found'.

 

It does not therefore exist a priori

 

- His Being can only be made of events,  

hence: 'Being and event'.

 

- His Being is made in and by worlds

hence: 'Logics of Worlds'.

 

- Its Being , 

not existing a priori,

but necessarily open

to the reception of the event,

is in truth, 

the fruit of fidelity to the event

and it must therefore be noted 

that it is infinite in-finite.

 

The cause of the subject's Being

-the Event-, 

which is an excess arising in the Real of his situation

is therefore not created by an external 'force'.

but is immanent in the Real of the subject's situation

hence

'The immanence of truths'.

 

 

*

 

My PhD - The Reason for the augury -

which I have reworked and will publish in 2022,

was written in the 1980s 

and its first version was published in 1992. 

It was written by me soaked in the practice of these authors: 

Schopenhauer followed by Cantor, Freud, Lacan...

and before reading Badiou's three great final books.

Nevertheless, it does deal with architecture 

or 'how to architect...'

for an anthrope-subject 

not central to itself 

or 

which is to be found'.

 

‘Where is the subject to be found...? ‘ 

‘What are the conditions for the subject to find itself?’

is surely a question that is dealt with...

 

Alain Badiou,

following a very brief presentation by myself,

at the end of a colloquium in Caen,

asked me to pass it on to him.

I did so immediately.

 

A few weeks later,

I received the letter below,

which at first overwhelmed me,

and then carried me through my working life.

For,

 -....Alain Badiou, being a true authority for me,

I believed what he wrote to me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dear Marc Belderbos,

 

A simple "crossing" of your enterprise immediately establishes its remarkable character, and, I say it to you without waiting, as without exaggeration.

   Whether it is (at random) the inaugural distinction between use and ease, or the complex judgement on Le Corbusier, or the centring of Kahn's thought, I can tell you that your book has given me the feeling of being the first (to my knowledge) to establish in thought the genius of ‘to architect’.

 

   It now remains for me to follow you step by step, or in the "writing step".

Don't worry if this ordeal takes some time. I am not a futile reader, as soon as, as is obviously the case here, writing is an exposure of/to the Real.

 

I thank you for letting me know your path.

 

Very cordially to you,

 

Alain Badiou.

 

 

 

 

Tanscription of the letter in French

 

Cher Marc Belderbos,

 

Une simple “traversée” de votre entreprise en établit aussitôt, et,je vous le dit sans attendre, comme sans exagération, le caractère remarquable.

   Qu’il s’agisse (au hasard) de la distinction inaugurale entre les usages et l’aise, ou du jugement complexe porté sur Le Corbusier, ou de la centration de la pensée de Kahn, je puis vous dire que votre livre m’a donné le sentiment d’être le premier (à ma connaissance) à établir dans la pensée le génie de l’architecturer.

 

   Il me reste à présent à vous suivre pas à pas, ou dans “le pas d’écriture“.

Ne vous inquiétez pas si cette épreuve prend quelque temps. Je ne suis pas un lecteur futile, dès que, comme c’est ici à l’évidence le cas, l’écriture est exposition du/au réel.

 

Je vous remercie de m’avoir fait connaître votre chemin.

 

Très cordialement à vous,

 

Alain Badiou.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One last point.... 

which I can only certify 

that it is  true.

 

 

It is a short anecdote .... 

 

She obliged  me ... :

 

The day Jean Ladrière died, 

I was with Alain Badiou 

in the corridors of a conference in Namur. 

 

I told him the news.

 

Badiou immediately told me  

how much he had appreciated Ladrière

and what he had studied his work 

on logic and on the event.

 

I also told him how much Ladrière 

had appreciated my work 

and 'La raison de l'augure'...

 

A few minutes later, 

Badiou moved towards me again 

and told me...

 

‘…In any case, only the great ones will ever understand you...'. 

 

I was flabbergasted...

 

 

 

Afterwards, I said to myself... 

If Badiou says that to me, it obliges me...

 

In fact, 

if Badiou, 

the person, 

in my life as an intellectual, 

to whom I attribute full authority,

tells me 

 

…In any case, only the great ones will ever understand you... 

 

it is undoubtedly 

that there is something new 

in what I had written,

 

and that forced me 

to work on establishing my thoughts as best I could...

 

This is what I did by revisiting,

word by word 

'La raison de l'augure'

25 years after the first version

 

in a new maturity...