Against "political philosophy" -- Politics as thought -- Althusser -- Politics unbound -- A speculative disquisition on the concept of democracy -- Truths and justice -- Rancière and the community of equals -- Rancière and apolitics -- What is a thermidorean? -- Politics as truth procedure.

The place of the subjective -- Everything that is of a whole constitutes an obstacle to it insofar as it is included in it -- Action, manor of the subject -- The real is the impasse of formalization : formalization is the locus of the passing-into-force of the real -- Hegel : "the activity of force is essentially activity reacting against itself" -- Subjective and objective -- The subject under the signifiers of the exception -- Of force as disappearance, whose (...) effect is the whole from which it has disappeared -- Deduction of the splitting -- A la nue accablante tu? -- Any subject is a forced exception, which comes in second place -- Jewelry for the sacred of any subtraction of existence -- Lack and destruction -- The new one forbids the new one and presupposes it -- On the side of the true -- There are no class relations -- Every subject crosses a lack of being and a destruction -- The subjects antecedence to itself -- Torsion -- Theory of the subject according to Sophocles, theory of the subject according to Eeschylus -- Of the strands of the knot, knowing only the color -- A materialist reversal of materialism -- The Black sheep of materialism -- The indissoluble salt of truth -- Answering to the sphinx demands from the subject not to have to answer or the sphinx -- Algebra and topology -- Neigborhoods -- Consistency, second name of the real after the cause -- So little ontology -- Subjectivization and subjective process -- The topological opposite of the knot is not the cut-dispersion but the destruction-recomposition -- Subjectivizing anticipation, retroaction of the subjective process -- Hurry! hurry! word of the living! -- The inexistent -- Logic of the excess -- Topics of ethics -- Where? -- The subjective twist : and -- Diagonals of the imaginary -- Schema -- Ethics as the dissipation of the paradoxes of partisanship -- Classical detour -- Love what you will never believe twice. (shrink)

This volume, assembled with the collaboration of the author, presents for the first time in English a comprehensive outline of Badiou's ambitious system.

Badiou explores the exponentially rich and varied world of French philosophy in a number of groundbreaking essays, published her for the first time in English or in a revised translation. Included are the often-quoted review of Louis Althussers's canonical works For Marks and Reading Capital and the scathing critique of 'potato fascism' in Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guttari's A Thousand Plateus. There are also talks on Michel Foucault and Jean-Luc Nancy, and reviews of the work of Jean-François Lyotard and Barbara (...) Cassin, notable points of interest on an expansive tour of modern French thought.Guided by a small set of fundamental questions concerning the nature of being, the event, the subject, and truth, Badiou pushes to an extreme the polemical force of his thinking. Against the formless continuum of life, he posits the need for radical discontinuity; against the false modesty of finitude, he pleads for the mathematical infinity of everyday situations; against the various returns to Kant, the argues for the persistence of Hegelian dialectic; and against the lure of ultraleftism, his texts from the 1970s vindicate the role of Maoism as a driving force behind the communist Idea. (shrink)

A leading continental philosopher from France and author of Theory of the Subject interrogates the "anti-philosophy" of Ludwig Wittgenstein in Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, arguing that his beliefs compromise truth and logic while rendering philosophy a practice of esoteric aphorisms.

"Is it meaningful to call oneself a democrat? And if so, how do you interpret the word?" -/- In responding to this question, eight iconoclastic thinkers prove the rich potential of democracy, along with its critical weaknesses, and reconceive the practice to accommodate new political and cultural realities. Giorgio Agamben traces the tense history of constitutions and their coexistence with various governments. Alain Badiou contrasts current democratic practice with democratic communism. Daniel Bensaid ponders the institutionalization of democracy, while Wendy (...) Brown discusses the democratization of society under neoliberalism. Jean-Luc Nancy measures the difference between democracy as a form of rule and as a human end, and Jacques Rancière highlights its egalitarian nature. Kristin Ross identifies hierarchical relationships within democratic practice, and Slavoj Zizek complicates the distinction between those who desire to own the state and those who wish to do without it. -/- Concentrating on the classical roots of democracy and its changing meaning over time and within different contexts, these essays uniquely defend what is left of the left-wing tradition after the fall of Soviet communism. They confront disincentives to active democratic participation that have caused voter turnout to decline in western countries, and they address electoral indifference by invoking and reviving the tradition of citizen involvement. Passionately written and theoretically rich, this collection speaks to all facets of modern political and democratic debate. (shrink)

Explores the link between mathematics and ontology.

The shift in Foucault’s work from genealogy to ethics finds consensus among Foucault scholars. However, the motivations behind this transition remain either misunderstood or understudied in large part. Foucault’s recently published or soon-to-be translated 1977/—9 lectures (published as Security, Territory, Population and as The Birth of Biopolitics) offer new elements for understanding this dense and uncharted period along Foucault’s itinerary. In this article, the author argues that Foucault’s interpretation of the liberal tradition, which is at the core of the 1977—9 (...) lectures, must be examined in combination with Foucault’s other major interests in the late 1970s, namely the Iranian Revolution and Kant. The discovery of spirituality (Iran), the valorization of an autonomous subject (Kant) and the call for a tolerant environment towards minority practices (liberalism) pave the way for the later Foucault’s ethics, which are grounded in spiritual exercises and means of liberating the subject. (shrink)

Les idées ici proposées ne dépendent point de quelque idée supérieure d'abord posée, et ne conduisent même point à quelque notion commune qui puisse définir tous les arts en peu de mots. Au contraire je me suis attaché à marquer les différences, les séparations, les oppositions, me réglant ainsi, autant que peut faire la critique, sur les oeuvres elles-mêmes, dont chacune s'affirme si bien et n'affirme qu'elle.

D’un point de vue patrimonial, le célèbre texte des Éléments de géométrie de Clairaut, publié la première fois en 1741, est traditionnellement considéré comme le début d’une riche histoire plutôt que son aboutissement, en raison notamment du succès considérable qu’il a eu dès sa parution et de la manière dont Clairaut en a défendu le projet, en rupture apparente avec le modèle euclidien. Nous proposons ici une image un peu différente qui s’appuie sur la nature très particulière de la production (...) géométrique foisonnante dans laquelle le traité de Clairaut s’insère et doit être compris. Nous présentons tout d’abord le côté paradoxal de l’ouvrage, qui revendique non seulement une grande originalité mais aussi une non moins grande conformité au genre des « éléments » de géométrie spéculative. Nous indiquons ensuite cinq raisons majeures qui montrent que le texte était en effet largement conforme aux attendus de l’époque, y compris dans sa revendication d’accessibilité et de rupture vis-à-vis du modèle euclidien. Nous dégageons deux originalités de l’ouvrage : le fait de confondre les caractéristiques des géométries spéculatives et pratiques dans un seul et même ouvrage ; et le fait d’écrire un ouvrage de géométrie suivant un « ordre analytique », mais sans algèbre. (shrink)

The interdisciplinary relevance of Spinoza today.

This work presents a mathematical model describing the interactions between the cross-shore structure of small pelagic fish population an their exploitation by coastal and offshore fisheries. The complete model is a system of seven ODE’s governing three stocks of small pelagic fish population moving and growing between three zones. Two types of fishing fleets are inter-acting with the fish population, industrial boats, constrained to offshore area, and artisanal boats, operating from the shore. Two time scales were considered and we use (...) aggregation methods that allow us to reduce the dimension of the model and to obtain an aggregated model, which is a four dimension one. The analysis of the aggregated model is performed. We discuss the possible equilibriums and their meaning in terms of fishery management. An interesting equilibrium state can be obtained for which we can expect coexistence and a stable equilibrium state between fish stocks and fishing efforts. Some identification parameters are also given in the discussion part of the model. (shrink)

Leibniz comprenait la question pourquoi y a-t-il quelque chose plutot que rien? sur un mode ontologique; il l'interpretait dans le cadre d'une physique continue, lineaire et necessaire; et il y repondait en invoquant le principe de raison suffisante. Nous comprenons desormais cette question sur un mode non ontologique, en substituant une notion relativiste et pragmatiste de realite a la notion absolue d'etre; nous l'interpretons dans le cadre d'une physique discontinue, non lineaire et probabiliste; et nous y repondons en denoncant, sur (...) un mode non sceptique, le principe de raison suffisante. Operer un tel renversement de l'analyse leibnizienne ne suffit toutefois pas. Car nous restons dans le cadre de la logique binaire adoptee par Leibniz, a savoir l'opposition entre le quelque chose (1) et le rien (0)... (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Kant-Studien Jahrgang: 108 Heft: 1 Seiten: 116-133.

Une définition moderne de l'art, qui fait le point des problématiques classiques et contemporaines. Par-delà les polémiques récentes, deux grandes thèses semblent désormais triompher : l'art serait indéfinissable, et les critères d'évaluation des oeuvres irrémédiablement subjectifs. Tout dépendrait de la décision de l'artiste et de la réception du public. Qu'en est-il vraiment?

Alain de Lattre. IV RÊVERIE ET PROFONDEUR Avant d'aller plus loin, tâchons de rassembler sur quelques traits ce que nous avons vu. Il y a de la distance dans les choses, disions-nous '. Fort bien. Quelle distance ? Celle qu'on pourrait voir ...

The Politics of Gilles Deleuze and the Random Materialism of the Late Althusser A cursory reading of the writings of the late Althusser in which the philosopher attempts to devise a « random materialism » might lead us to regard them as the matrix from which a number of post-structuralist conceptions of politics, including that of Gilles Deleuze, have sprung. Our intention in the present article is to demonstrate the partial nature of such a filiation. To do so, the article (...) focuses on the relationship between the late Althusser and the Deleuzean conception of politics. It will thus examine the refusal, common to both philosophers, to elaborate a totalising theory of the political and their concomitant invocation of a principle of contingency. Such an affinity should not however disguise the differences between Althusser and Deleuze with regard to the manner in which the actualisation of such a programme is to be envisaged. (shrink)

The sociology of knowledge is faced with a problem of historical temporality that it has carefully avoided up until now. The subject has been avoided or ignored because a discussion of it in depth would run the risk of questioning all modern scientific thought. The problem is that of the concept of absolute time as it is used in evolutionist theory. In this category of theory I include not only social evolutionism, abused for a long time and recently reanimated by (...) the “socio-biologists,” but also biological, paleontological, geological and other types of evolutionism, that is, those qualified as “scientific.”. (shrink)

(2006). Democratic Deliberation in a Multinational Federation. Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy: Vol. 9, No. 3, pp. 419-444.

Un rapport récent1 de la Commission d’enseignement de l’Académie de Médecine mettait en garde les pouvoirs publics contre un symptôme grandissant : celui d’une désaffection pour les carrières hospitalo-universitaires traditionnellement caractérisées par la triple mission de soins, d’enseignement et de recherche. Le rapport insistait par ailleurs sur le malaise ou le mal-être..

Limitations of antiarrhythmic drugs on cardiac sudden death prevention appeared since the early 80's. The "Cardiac Arrhythmia Suppression Trial"(CAST) showed more recently that mortality was significantly higher inpatients treated with some particular antiarrhythmic drugs than in non-treated patients. In this field, our group recently demonstrated that a bolus of a Class 1B antiarrhythmic drug was able to trigger a ventricular fibrillation due to transient blocks induction. The aim of the present work was to systematically study, by use of the van (...) Capelle and Durrer (VCD) model which allows to simulate ventricular activation wave propagation, the link between arrhythmogenic effects and the ability of transient blocks to possibly degenerate in severe arrhythmias. A fragment of the ventricular wall is represented by an array of 16384elements electrically coupled. Effects of induction of one or several transient blocks, as the effects of their size and duration on possible induction of reentries have been studied. Results obtained show that various combinations between these different parameters may trigger reentries, ventricular tachycardia and/or more complex patterns assimilable to ventricular fibrillation. These results clearly evidence the fact that possible induction of transient blocks may directly be related to risk factor associated to arrhythmogenic effects of antiarrhythmic drugs. (shrink)

Depuis plus de vingt ans, le développement de la vidéoprotection fait l'objet de nombreux débats, parfois passionnés, tant en ce qui concerne son utilité en vue de lutter contre la délinquance que pour ses éventuelles conséquences en matière d'atteintes aux libertés individuelles. En France, l'installation de systèmes de vidéoprotection sur la voie publique est encadrée par les dispositions de la loi du 21janvier 1995. La vidéoprotection n'est qu'un outil parmi d'autres au service de la prévention et de la lutte contre (...) la criminalité. Elle peut être efficace lorsque sa mise en oeuvre répond à des objectifs clairement définis. En revanche, certains problèmes demeurent lorsqu'elle est mal utilisée. L'usage des nouvelles technologies par l'État ne doit pas être systématiquement abordé sous l'angle symbolique ou du militantisme. La problématique n'est pas dans leur essor, car il est incontestable que les progrès technologiques contribuent à une meilleure sécurité des citoyens, tant à charge pour les criminels, qu'à décharge pour les personnes injustement poursuivies, mais dans les moyens et les procédures de contrôle de ces outils. Là est l'enjeu.The development of video-monitoring has been a subject of considerable and often heated debate for over twenty years, both as regards its effectiveness against crime and its potential for infringing civil liberties. In France, the installation of video-monitoring systems in public places is regulated by the Act of January 21st, 1995. Video-monitoring is one of a range of tools used in preventing and fighting crime. When implemented with clearly defined objectives, it can be effective. However, the misuse of video-monitoring raises a number of problems. The use of new technologies by the State should not be systematically viewed in symbolic terms or from the angle of political activism. The problem at issue is not the boom in video-monitoring in itself, as it cannot be denied that technological progress is contributing to better security for citizens, both against criminals and in the defence of persons unjustly charged, but rather the means and procedures for controlling its use. (shrink)

This collection examines an aspect of Gilles Deleuze’s thought that has largely been neglected; whether or not Deleuze was a metaphysician. Answering this question may reveal the problematic nature of so-called postmodernism and the critique it leveled at the first philosophy, and it may help readers to better understand philosophy’s fate.

Qu'en est-il des relations intellectuelles de Deleuze à ses contemporains ?

L’économie des jeux vidéo s’est progressivement développée autour d’une forme canonique qui a culminé dans les années 2000 : la commercialisation de jeux coûteux, dits « AAA », vendus en boîte dans des magasins, et appuyés par de lourdes campagnes de promotion. Ce modèle a non seulement représenté la grande majorité des ventes, mais il a aussi dicté les stratégies industrielles et façonné les mentalités professionnelles des salariés du secteur. Depuis quelques années, ce modèle est désormais en crise, crise sanctionnée (...) par un grave désaveu sur les marchés financiers, et le déplacement du centre de gravité du secteur vers des modèles nouveaux, moins bien maîtrisés, fondés sur les terminaux mobiles et les réseaux.The video games economy developed steadily on traditional lines to reach its peak in the 2000s: games were expensive, boxed and labelled “AAA” and heavily promoted for sale through retail outlets. This model not only supported the vast majority of sales, but also dictated industrial strategies and shaped the professional mentalities of employees in the sector. However, this model began to founder a few years ago, hitting a crisis that was severely sanctioned on the financial markets and shifted the sector’s centre of gravity towards new and less well-tried models based on mobile devices and networks. (shrink)