Ethics: An Essay on the Understanding of Evil (Wo Es War) - Hardcover

Badiou, Alain

3.87

1,799 ratings by Goodreads

9781859842973: Ethics: An Essay on the Understanding of Evil (Wo Es War)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1859842976 ISBN 13: 9781859842973

Publisher: Verso Books, 2001

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Alain Badiou explodes the facile assumptions behind the recent ethical turn by governments of the West. He shows how our prevailing ethical principles serve to reinforce an ideology of the status quo and ultimately fail to provide a framework for an effective understanding of the fundamental concepts of good and evil. In contrast, Badiou summons up an "ethic of truths" which is designed to sustain and inspire a disciplined, subjective adherence to a militant cause (be it political, scientific, artistic or romantic) and to discern a finely demarcated zone of application for the concept of evil.

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Review:

"This is a fiery little book."--"Choice" "His reasoning is powerful and surprising, making some of the best writing in current European philosophy, and his credentials are impeccable."--"Amazon.com" "Badiou is at his strongest in pointing to the inconsistencies of a facile multiculturalism, the pluralism of the food court and the shopping mall, which wilts in the face of any genuine expression of cultural hostility to liberal values."--"Radical Philosophy" "His lively, stimulating and sometimes completely batty book is an attempt to make us think differently about what matters to us ... it is hard not to feel some sympathy for Badiou's intuition that 'morality', 'evil' and indeed much of our standard moral vocabulary often serve as almost deliberate disguises for mediocre policy-making, social complacency and a general lack of adventurousness about life."--"Times Literary Supplement"

About the Author:

Alain Badiou teaches philosophy at the E?cole normale superieure and the College international de philosophie in Paris. In addition to several novels, plays and political essays, he has published a number of major philosophical works, including "Theory of the Subject," "Being and Event," "Manifesto for Philosophy," and "Gilles Deleuze." His recent books include "The Meaning of Sarkozy," "Ethics," "Metapolitics," "Polemics, ""The Communist Hypothesis," "Five Lessons on Wagner," and "Wittgenstein's Anti-Philosophy." Peter Hallward teaches at the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy at Kingston University, London. He is the author of several books including "Absolutely Postcolonial," "Badiou: A Subject to Truth, ""Out of This World: Deleuze and the Philosophy of Creation," and "Damming the Flood."

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