Badiou’s Communist Hypothesis: A Study Plan
Posted by Mike E on September 17, 2010
Kasama received the following:
A group of us in Chicago have begun what we’re calling the Communist Hypothesis Study Circle. The name, of course, comes from Alain Badiou’s recent (and quite excellent) book of that title:
The Communist Hypothesis.
Someone suggested it might be useful to post our schedule of readings here, for possible use by others who may be interested in doing something similar.
We’ll be meeting every two weeks, which will allow time for reading, study, reflection.
Below is our preliminary schedule of readings for the Communist Hypothesis Study Circle:
(Meeting 1) Communist Hypothesis:
Preamble: What is called failure?
Chapter 1: We Are Still the Contemporaries of May ‘68
- May ’68 Revisited, 40 Years On
- Outline of a Beginning
- This Crisis Is the Spectacle: Where is the Real?
(Meeting 2) Communist Hypothesis
Chapter 2: The Cultural Revolution: The Last Revolution?
Chapter 3: The Paris Communie: A political Declaration on Politics
Appendix: Letter from Alain Badiou to Slavoj Zizek: On the Work of Mao Zedong
(Meeting 3) The Communist Hypothesis
Chapter 4: The Idea of Commmunism
New Left Review article “The Communist Hypothesis”
After finishing The Communist Hypothesis, we plan to continue next with various parts or excerpts from Badiou’s most recent extensive philosophical work, Logics of Worlds, which forms the background to what he says in The Communist Hypothesis, especially in Chapter IV.
Probable readings from Logics of Worlds:
Preface
Book II, Section 2: Hegel
Book III: Scholium on the Transcendental Functor (“as impressive as it is subtle”!)
Book V (The Four Forms of Change), Introduction and Section 1
Book VI (Theory of Points), Introduction and Section 1
Book VII (What is a Body?), Scholium: A Political Variant of the Physics of the Subject-of-Truth)
Conclusion: What Is It to Live?
Selucha said
Good timing. I bought this book last week and am making an initial reading.
RW Harvey said
Looking forward to reading/discussing this… As you probably know there is a very long critique of Badiou by R. Lotta, et. al, pounding him with the hammer of Avakianism:
http://www.demarcations-journal.org/issue01/demarcations_badiou.html
Mike E said
RWH:
Bill Martin wrote a commentary on that anti-Badiou essay here on Kasama: Dear Professor Badiou… About That RCP Assault
Brian Worley said
Chris Cutrone also recently published a piece that discusses the RCP’s critique of Badiou in Platypus Review #26. The online version can be found here: Chinoiserie: A critique of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA’s “New Synthesis”
epoliticus said
If there will be physical meetings of the study group, then also please announce the dates, times, and locations.
Mike E said
write an email if you want details.
Otto said
I plan on getting this book. We need some new reading for the 21st century. Maybe this guy has something new to say. I’m looking forward to reading it.
Mike E said
Ok, let me ask some advice:
I have received PDF’s of this book (Badiou’s Communist Hypothesis).
Should we post it, or should we simply urge everyone to go buy it?
thoughts?
Stephanie McMillan said
Maybe post excerpts, but people should buy the book. Writers need to make a living. Too much free content and we’ll have no independent writers left.
Mike E said
We have just posted an excerpt (Chapter 2 on the Cultural Revolution).
And yes, we are trying to decide how to handle the ethical issues of posting the whole book (It is a matter both of the writer but also of supporting Verso the publisher.)
I’m inclined to your view: post excerpts, generate interest in the book, encourage people to buy and read the whole thing. (It is available on Amazon for about $14 now used).