The Fifth Condition: A propos Alain Badiou’s Philosophy

Abstract

In his general conception of philosophy, Alain Badiou insists on two issues: the first concerns the four conditions of philosophy (mathematics, politics, art and love), whereas the second refers to the principle according to which philosophy has to pull itself away from the immediate grip of its conditions, while nevertheless remaining within their field. The author analyses various aspects of this last principle (calling it “the fifth condition”), within Badiou’s philosophy itself as well as in its confrontation with some other currents of contemporary thought. Starting from Badiou’s concepts of excess, of the One and of multiple, she brings forward the question of representation and its different conceptions.