Wittgenstein's Anti-Philosophy

Alain Badiou takes on the standard bearer of the “linguistic turn” in modern philosophy and anatomizes the “antiphilosophy” of Ludwig Wittgenstein. In the course of his interrogation of Wittgenstein’s thinking, Badiou refines his own definitions of the universal truths that govern his work. Bruno Bosteels’s introduction argues that a continuing dialogue with Wittgenstein is inescapable for contemporary philosophy.

Alain Badiou teaches philosophy at the École normale supérieure and the Collège 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.

Bruno Bosteels, Professor of Romance Studies at Cornell University, is the author of Badiou and Politics, Marx and Freud in Latin America, and The Actuality of Communism. He is also the translator of several books by Alain Badiou: Theory of the Subject, Can Politics Be Thought? and What Is Antiphilosophy? Essays on Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Lacan. He currently serves as the General Editor of Diacritics.