Alain Badiou and the Idée communiste

Abstract

Badiou has re-launched the debate amongst intellectuals regarding the viability and the desirability of communism, insisting that now is the time to begin to take the idea of communism seriously again. This is an important move, especially as he contrasts a more generic form of communism with the actually existing communism of the twentieth century. Indeed, Badiou's own philosophical schema is bound up with notions of equality and emancipation. However, unlike Marx, Badiou is unable properly to relate his notion of communism to the material world. He shares with Marx a passion for many kinds of equality, but retains some pre-Marxian idealism, which allows no room for a fully fledged unity of theory and practice.Badiou a relance le debat parmi les intellectuels a propos de la viabilite et l'interět du communisme, en insistant qu'il est temps de prendre au serieux l'idee du communisme a nouveau. C'est une demarche importante, en particulier parce qu'il fait un contraste entre une forme de communisme pluto...