I am a fan of the (probably hermeneutic) idea that if one aims to write an adequate critics/response of a text, one needs to initially assume that the text, this crude and crazy production of thought – is actually adequate. Let’s undertake this apparently naive experiment, that everything written in the text in front of us is correct and if we work hard enough we can make sense out of it. The question then is to observ, pronounce and – if possible – overcome the resistances that our understanding produces when we read the text. With such an assumption we get the chance to describe arguments in the text in a way that makes it more accessible to others (who may have made similar reading-experiences). But secondly – I am convinced – it is one way to better locate flaws, when we at the same time keep in mind that this is an experiment – and that our initial assumption can arguable turn out to be wrong.
The following – very limited – examination deals with one aspect of “Being and Event” (BE), a major work of Alain Badiou, namely the “Matheme of the Event”. Badiou uses a set-theoretical framework in order to analyze how it is possible that a situation – shaped by structures, rules, habits, stabilized knowledge – gets disturbed such that novelties – new perspectives – emerge that were not thinkable within the situation before. The flash that disturbs the situation is called the event.
The context and motivation of this post are (1) recent, unsatisfying critiques and repliques about the status of mathematics in BE – published in Critical Inquiry and (2) the collection of Badiou-related postings in this blog:
- Ricardo and David Nirenberg: “Badiou’s Number: A Critique of Mathematics as Ontology“. Critical Inquiry, Vol. 37 (Summer 2011), pp. 583-614
- Alain Badiou: “To Preface the Response to the ‘Criticisms’ of Ricardo Nirenberg and David Nirenberg“. Critical Inquiry, Vol. 38, No. 2. (January 2012), pp. 362-364
- A. J. Bartlett and Justin Clemens: “Neither Nor“. Critical Inquiry, Vol. 38, No. 2. (January 2012), pp. 365-380
- Richardo and David Nirenberg: “Reply to Badiou, Bartlett, and Clemens“