[lbo-talk] reading badiou -- worth it? (was: Review of Badiou's Number)

[ravi]

On Jul 28, 2009, at 9:05 AM, Matthias Wasser wrote:
> I must confess that my forays into Badiou (beyond a few concrete  
> essays like
> "the uses of the word 'Jew'") left me totally incomprehending. If  
> one wants
> to eventually get a grasp on the more difficult Verso-y writers (ie  
> beyond
> reading Zizek for the dirty jokes), is there a particular curriculum  
> (read
> this, then read this, then read this; then watch these lectures on  
> YouTube)
> or way of approaching the text that one should take?

Considering the "mathematics is ontology" bit and some of the material  
in Number and Numbers, I am at a loss for any short-term strategy to  
*evaluate* Badiou. I am at a point where with some effort I might be  
able to remember and rework the relevant mathematical developments  
from about 1870 to 1960 (Dedekind to Cohen). But even if this  
strenuous task can be completed, I am not sure I can then move up a  
level to address and understand the implications of the mathematical  
results (it is unsurprising that there remains, thanks to someone as  
eminent as Penrose, so much debate around even the interpretation of  
Gödel's results). I think one needs to understand the parsimonious  
versions before one can parse the radical ones. And keeping up with  
things right up to Quine and Putnam is tough enough ... how to  
approach Wittgenstein, let alone Badiou? I may have to leave it to  
stronger souls/minds,

	--ravi

--
Anyone who takes an effort to intellectually challenge the status quo  
and established habits is infinitely more venerable than hacks  
defending that status quo and established habits, regardless of the  
truth function of their propositions. -- W.Sokolowski