Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
Ethics: An Essay on the Understanding of Evil
Alain Badiou, one of the most powerful voices in contemporary French philosophy, shows how our prevailing ethical principles serve ultimately to reinforce an ideology of the status quo and fail to provide a framework for an effective understanding of the concept of evil.
Paperback, 168 pages
Published
November 17th 2001
by Verso
(first published 1993)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
This book is not yet featured on Listopia.
Add this book to your favorite list »
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
1,075)
I absolutely agree with his views on political correctness. The determination that the other needs to be more like the observer to obtain an acceptance of differences in culture/sex/status really needed to be addressed and I thought he did this very well. What he really didn't do as well, and what I felt like some of this book was driving towards was the juxtaposition of good and evil in taking it away from a religious/preconceived setting. This is fairly impossible to do in the manner he approa...more
This is a book that I almost certainly should have spent a longer time reading, despite it being very short. It is also the kind of book that is almost pointless to give a rating to, so by 3 stars I mean only that I to some extent disagree with Badiou's conclusions. To think of Evil as being constructed from Good (or even visa versa) strikes me as a hopeless quest. It is a question that comes up often in philosophy, and while Badiou does well explaining his take on this issue, I personally canno...more
I know Badiou is in vogue right now, and I know we all like to beat on the popular guy, but this book is great! Badiou's text is crystal clear, his arguments make sense, and he's tackling an extremely relevant issue in a novel way. Also, this is one of the rare books in philosophy that one could read without much training (I think).
The good:
-Philosophy as the domain of Truths. Truth as a concept entirely separate from knowledge (from Heidegger).
-The "Mortal" vs. "Immortal" frame-work (I think d...more
The good:
-Philosophy as the domain of Truths. Truth as a concept entirely separate from knowledge (from Heidegger).
-The "Mortal" vs. "Immortal" frame-work (I think d...more
I found this inspiring and challenging. Sure, there are probably plenty of angles to argue with what Badiou's attempting, but the idea of trying to ground ethics in some sort of (non-religious) concept of the Good and then allowing Evil to be defined by that (rather than the other way around) *does* seem to me a promising way out of some of the negative binds that our current approach creates. Who can argue that by choosing to define ethics in terms of Evil we turn the victims into animals? We c...more
Alain Badiou presenta en La Ética una interpretación de como las concepciones éticas contemporáneas, se mezclan más bien con lo moral fomentando el estatus quo dentro de las sociedades y las relaciones humanas.
Badiou cuestiona la naturaleza de la verdad desde varios puntos de vista el trascendental kantiano, desde el punto de vista nietzscheniano y el de Levinas por mencionar algunos,tratando de desarraigar de la moral el concepto de verdad, el de bien y el de ética.
La ética no es universal, es...more
Badiou cuestiona la naturaleza de la verdad desde varios puntos de vista el trascendental kantiano, desde el punto de vista nietzscheniano y el de Levinas por mencionar algunos,tratando de desarraigar de la moral el concepto de verdad, el de bien y el de ética.
La ética no es universal, es...more
For those unfamiliar with Badiou's philosophy, this is a perfect book to start a serious journey in that direction. The subjects that come out of this book at the end are manifold and explode in all directions. This is a turning-point book--it is meant to be--for Badiou dismantles the fortress of ethical ideology through his critique of the architectonics of Kant and the phenomenology of Levinas. On his way in doing so, he attacks every humanitarian notion you can think of: from a direct hammeri...more
Good in articulating future ethics of comprehensive emancipation, bad in critique of human rights doctrine and Levinasian ethics (the critique is not solid enough). Badiou tries to postulate positive ethics, but its forced opposition to the ethics of Levinas does not convince me. Ethics of truths is indifferent to differences, but does not deny it and leaves differences in a uncommunicative level, while Levinasian ethics could be that communicative concept leaving universal "truths" for politics...more
Schon vor einigen Jahren empfahl mir ein buddhistischer Meditationsguru dieses Buch, wobei mich erstaunte, dass dieser sich auch mit französischer Philosophie beschäftigte! Nach der Lektüre (warum erst jetzt?) ist mir tatsächlich klar geworden, was ihn hier fasziniert haben mag. Es ist wohl die Theorie des Subjekts, die hier skizziert wird (ausgeführt in den Hauptwerken Badious). Das Subjekt konstituiert keine Wahrheiten, sondern umgekehrt konstituiert es sich in einem Wahrheitsereignis. Es sind...more
I don't generally read philosophy unless it comes in the form of an insightful piece of literature with stylistic brilliance and complex characters. (I'm looking at you, Dostoevsky!) I used to fancy myself the sort of philosopher that could tackle Kant or Kierkegaard (intellectually, not physically. I've never been quite that delusional), and it still shames me to admit it, but I'm not. I'm just not that type of reader. Which is probably why I struggle with literary theory so much. And why I str...more
This one is written by the polemicist Badiou not the set theorist Badiou - intended for a more popular audience it's written with a flourish which would be exasperating in a more scholarly work and is extremely readable for it. There's a lot of gloss over his ontology and his Lacanian fundamentals, which is appropriate I think but if you've never even heard of a 'multiple set' or a 'mirror stage' you might want to do a spot of research before picking up Ethics; I recommended it to some friends w...more
“Evil is the moment when I lack the strength to be true to the Good that compels me.”
“It is necessary to examine, in a detailed way, the contemporary theory of Evil, the ideology of human rights, the concept of democracy. It is necessary to show that nothing there leads in the direction of the real emancipation of humanity. It is necessary to reconstruct rights, in everyday life as in politics, of Truth and of the Good. Our ability to once again have real ideas and real projects depends on it.”
“It is necessary to examine, in a detailed way, the contemporary theory of Evil, the ideology of human rights, the concept of democracy. It is necessary to show that nothing there leads in the direction of the real emancipation of humanity. It is necessary to reconstruct rights, in everyday life as in politics, of Truth and of the Good. Our ability to once again have real ideas and real projects depends on it.”
Amazing. Badiou is one of the most important philosophers of our time, and his seminal text is an amazing introduction to his work. In Europe, this text is taught to high school students; the US should spend less time catering to standardized testing, and more time encouraging students to think critically about the world around them. This is a great text to gain a deeper understanding into contemporary philosophical issues.
Ch. 1-3 are necessary to clear some dead wood from the professional philosophical scene, but for essential thinking, they're sterile polemic. (We will not cease reading Levinas, and will read him all the better for the contributions of Being and Event.) 4&5 are essential. Hallward's Introduction is helpful.
...
Suspicion: fidelity is somewhat epiphenomenal. That is, we don't attain it by thinking it directly, but by putting input into the nonlinear functional web of a body. Strictly speaking,...more
...
Suspicion: fidelity is somewhat epiphenomenal. That is, we don't attain it by thinking it directly, but by putting input into the nonlinear functional web of a body. Strictly speaking,...more
Another challenging (but short) work by Badiou. Whether you agree with him or not, he will challenge the very frameworks by which you understand such discursive fields as 'Ethics'. His comments on issues like "the Rights of Man," "Ethics of Otherness" (like that of Levinas), "Political Correctness," and so forth may offend or shock the reader, but he has an interesting, well-meaning point - and I respect him for having the courage to tackle such topics. Obviously, society still deals with proble...more
This is definitely not a particularly easy read, but if given the chance, this book is incredibly interesting and really makes you think. I gave it three stars only because it's not my favorite type of book to sit down and read if given the choice.
The two stars are probably no fault of Badiou, but of my inability to understand continental philosophy -- the majority of which is nonsensical to me.
You can get this from reading the blurbs on the back, but this piece is at its best when dismantling neo-liberal ethics and highlighting how flimsy and superficial the Western multicultural moral compass is. When it comes time to put forward a new theory on ethics, the piece falters a bit. In a way, I'd almost rather stick with the ethics Badiou proposes but ditch those loaded terms of Good and Evil. They may be needed to discuss his philosophy with others of a differing philosophy, but the word...more
good introduction to one of the most infuriating systems of thought on the market.
A man who knows what he thinks and says it. An, uh, event ;-)
Oct 23, 2012
Steven Schoonover jr.
added it
A serious challenge to human rights doctrine........
Review on my blog
Some very powerful and interesting ideas but very weak argumentations. Poorly written in general.
May 17, 2013
Nindyo Sasongko
added it
Religious people, not least Christian theologians and philosophers, pose questions that it is impossible for us to be good without God. Badiou, however, contends that people can be ethical even though there is no God. A Hegelian and Lacanian reading of Ethics by a leftist philosopher. I begin to grasp the book. Not an easy one. But no least interesting.
I did not understand a lick of this book when I read it as an undergraduate. Then I picked it up after finishing a masters in philosophy and it seemed like a walk in the park. Not for the uninitiated, but still a decent text for the aspiring graduate student who has been versed in post-modern thought. Badiou knows how to use the word "Discourse" effectively.
I read this several years ago, but decided to go back to it and was amazed at how much I enjoyed it. Badiou's powers of formal argument are formidable, and he provides a strong critique of the current culture of "ethics" common in philosophy, politics, and a general cultural awareness of the "other." The fourth chapter was particularly helpful and clear.
I was not exactly satisfied with this!
A very interesting take on what it means to be Evil.
Holy crap! I better come back to this some day cause I got very little out of it. Someone read this and explain it to me cause it was written in two weeks and it took me that long just to read the damned thing.
Badiou shows that currently prevailing ethical principles serve ultimately to to reinforce the ideology of the status quo, and thus fail to provide a framework for an effective understanding of evil.
Unbelievable. This book changed the way I look at philosophy, literature, love...everything. Life changing, and deserving of hyperbolic praise.
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
Alain Badiou, Ph.D., born in Rabat, Morocco in 1937, holds the Rene Descartes Chair at the European Graduate School EGS. Alain Badiou was a student at the École Normale Supérieure in the 1950s. He taught at the University of Paris VIII (Vincennes-Saint Denis) from 1969 until 1999, when he returned to ENS as the Chair of the philosophy department. He continues to teach a popular seminar at the Coll...more
More about Alain Badiou...
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
“Evil is the moment when I lack the strength to be true to the Good that compels me.”
—
17 people liked it
More quotes…
Aug 03, 2011 07:08am