In this course
Badiou's mathematical ontology, grounded in set theory and his theory of the event, provides the course with a rigorous philosophical framework for thinking beyond linguistic and representational limits. The readings deploy Badiou's method of subtraction—the idea that reality exceeds its accessibility to thought and discourse—as a critical tool for navigating the gap between formal systems (whether mathematical or computational) and what they cannot capture or represent. This allows the seminar to interrogate how AI systems, treated as symbolic structures, necessarily remain subtracted from the reality they model, making Badiou's insistence on truth beyond relativism crucial to resisting both naive algorithmic determinism and postmodern resignation.
Background
Alain Badiou is a French philosopher, formerly chair of Philosophy at the École Normale Supérieure and founder of the faculty of Philosophy of the Université de Paris VIII with Gilles Deleuze, Michel Foucault and Jean-François Lyotard. Badiou's work is heavily informed by philosophical applications of mathematics, in particular set theory and category theory. Badiou's "Being and Event" project considers the concepts of being, truth, event and the subject defined by a rejection of linguistic relativism seen as typical of postwar French thought. Unlike his peers, Badiou believes in the idea of universalism and truth. His work is notable for his widespread applications of various conceptions of indifference. Badiou has been involved in a number of political organisations, and regularly comments on political events. Badiou argues for a return of communism as a political force.
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