Description
Book SynopsisThe notion of ‘the end’ has long occupied philosophical thought. In light of the horrors of the twentieth century, some writers have gone so far as to declare the end of philosophy itself, emphasizing the impossibility of thinking after Auschwitz.
In this book the distinguished philosopher Alain Badiou, in dialogue with Giovanbattista Tusa, argues that we must renounce ‘the pathos of completion’ and continue to think philosophically. To accept the atrocities of the twentieth century as marking the end of philosophy is intolerable precisely because it buys into the totalizing doctrines of the perpetrators. Badiou contends that philosophical thinking is needed now more than ever to counter the totalizing effects of globalized capitalism, which prescribes no objective for human life other than integration into its system, giving rise to a widespread sense of hopelessness and nihilism.
This book will appeal to the many followers of Badiou’s work and to anyone interested in contemporary philosophy and radical political theory.
Trade Review‘For those who are new to the work of Alain Badiou, and for those familiar with his corpus,
The End offers a lucid overview of some of his most important concepts – the subject, event, politics. It also works its way through two senses of the end, both the current nihilistic end times of twenty-first-century capitalism, and the more radical and innovative end of the Western philosophical tradition. Part interview, part dialogue, part reflection and part essay,
The End is at once an engaging and provocative read.’
Claire Colebrook, Penn State UniversityTable of ContentsApologue
Prologue
The End
Epilogue
Coda: ‘To the End? Of Europe and Philosophy’
The Infinity of Truths. A Very Short Essay on the End of Ends
Notes
