The Concept of ‘Philosophy under Conditions’ in Alain Badiou’s Philosophy

Abstract

The concept of ‘philosophy under conditions’ characterizes Badiou’s idea that philosophy is still possible today and that it exists only under the condition that truths exist. Badiou defines politics, science, art, and love as places where truths can arise, whereby philosophy itself is not truth, but rather thinking that recognizes and acknowledges truths in their real, historical existence. In the present article, I introduce a division between formal and real conditions of philosophy. By the real conditions of philosophy, I mean what Badiou generally calls the “conditions of philosophy” and refers to the four procedures of truth. Under the label of the formal conditions of philosophy, however, I gather together all of Badiou’s demands which dictate the ways in which philosophy is brought under the conditions of truth that are external to philosophy and independent of it. In the context of this division, I also answer the question of how necessary distance is maintained between truths (which condition) and philosophy (which is conditioned), which prevents truths from merging with philosophy, and vice versa.