Difficult Atheism: Post-Theological Thinking in Alain Badiou, Jean-Luc Nancy and Quentin Meillassoux

297 Pages·2011·1 MB·English

by  Christopher Watkin

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Crosscurrents i Difficult Atheism
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SERIES EDITOR: CHRISTOPHER WATKIN i
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Post-Theological Thinking in Alain Badiou,
This series explores the development of European thought through u
engagements with the arts, humanities, social sciences and sciences. l Jean-Luc Nancy and Quentin Meillassoux
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‘This book is a brilliant presentation of debates between key figures in
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the recent turn to religion (even in the shape of an insistent atheism or
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a-theism) in continental philosophy. Chris Watkin positions his work
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very precisely between philosophies of the finite (Nancy) and of the
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infinite (Badiou). The author could not have his finger more firmly on s
the pulse of contemporary discussion of these matters. I cannot think of m
a book on such difficult material written with more sparkle or clarity.’
David Wood, Centennial Professor of Philosophy, Vanderbilt University
Difficult Atheismshows how contemporary French philosophy is rethinking the
legacy of the death of God in ways that take the debate beyond the narrow
confines of atheism into the much broader domain of post-theological thinking.
Christopher Watkin argues that Alain Badiou, Jean-Luc Nancy and Quentin
Meillassoux each elaborate a distinctive approach to the post-theological, but
that each approach still struggles to do justice to the death of God.
Christopher Watkinteaches French literature and thought at the University of
Cambridge where he is a fellow of Murray Edwards College. He is the author of
Phenomenology or Deconstruction?: The Question of Ontology in Maurice
Merleau-Ponty, Paul Ricœur and Jean-Luc Nancy(2009).
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ISBN 978 0 7486 4057 7
Jacket image: A Genesis, 2006. Oil on canvas,
150 x 100 cm © Paul Saroglou
Edinburgh University Press E
22 George Square d
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Edinburgh n
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EH8 9LF
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www.euppublishing.com r
g CHRISTOPHER WATKIN
Cover design: www.paulsmithdesign.com h
DIFFICULT ATHEISM
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Crosscurrents
Exploring the development of European thought through engagements
with the arts, humanities, social sciences and sciences
Series Editor
Christopher Watkin, University of Cambridge
Editorial Advisory Board
Andrew Benjamin
Martin Crowley
Simon Critchley
Frederiek Depoortere
Oliver Feltham
Patrick ffrench
Christopher Fynsk
Kevin Hart
Emma Wilson
Titles available in the series
Diffi cult Atheism: Post-Theological Thinking in Alain Badiou,
Jean-Luc Nancy and Quentin Meillassoux by Christopher Watkin
Politics of the Gift: Exchanges in Poststructuralism by Gerald Moore
Visit the Crosscurrents website at www.euppublishing.com/series/cross
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DIFFICULT ATHEISM
Post-Theological Thinking in
Alain Badiou, Jean-Luc Nancy
and Quentin Meillassoux
Christopher Watkin
EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY PRESS
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© Christopher Watkin, 2011
Edinburgh University Press Ltd
22 George Square, Edinburgh
www.euppublishing.com
Typeset in 10.5/13 Sabon
by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire, and
printed and bound in Great Britain by
CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham and Eastbourne
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 0 7486 4057 7 (hardback)
The right of Christopher Watkin
to be identifi ed as author of this work
has been asserted in accordance with
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Abbreviations viii
Series Editor’s Preface xii
Introduction: Atheisms Today 1
1. The God of Metaphysics 22
2. The God of the Poets 58
3. Diffi cult Atheism 95
4. Beyond A/theism? Quentin Meillassoux 132
5. The Politics of the Post-Theological I: Justifying the Political 168
6. The Politics of the Post-Theological II: Justice 206
General Conclusion: How to Follow an ‘Atheism’ That
Never Was 239
Bibliography 244
Index 277
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For Alison, with all my love
BB
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Acknowledgements
I owe a debt of gratitude to those who very kindly read all or part of
this book in its latter stages, saving my blushes on a number of points
and improving the text in countless ways. I would like to register par-
ticular thanks to Frederiek Depoortere, Emma Gilby, John O’Brien,
Joeri Schrijvers and Kenneth Watkin. I would like to thank Ian James
and Martin Crowley for providing feedback and encouragement at an
early stage in the project’s life, along with three anonymous readers for
Edinburgh University Press who offered incisive and detailed feedback
on the fi rst chapter at a critical point in the book’s development, and to
two anonymous readers for French Studies whose invaluable comments
on arguments from the second chapter led to a substantial re-write. The
problems that no doubt still remain are all my own.
My gratitude goes to Carol Macdonald at Edinburgh University
Press for the care and professionalism with which she has handled the
project from start to fi nish. I am grateful to the Master and Fellows
of Magdalene College, Cambridge, and the President and Fellows of
Murray Edwards College, Cambridge, for their encouragement with
the project at every phase.
My profoundest admiration is reserved for Alison, who has lived
with my tinkering away on this book at unconventional hours with a
grace and largeness of spirit that speak of a greater love than I can here
express. ‘We love because he fi rst loved us.’
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Abbreviations
BADIOU
15T ‘Fifteen Theses on Contemporary Art’
19R ‘Dix-neuf réponses à beaucoup plus de questions’
2M Second Manifeste pour la philosophie
AMP Abrégé de métapolitique
AP Ahmed le philosophe
APBE ‘Author’s preface’ in Being and Event
APTW ‘Author’s preface’ in Theoretical Writings
ASR ‘Afterword: some replies to a demanding friend’
BE Being and Event
BF ‘Beyond formalisation’
BN ‘Being by numbers’
BOE Briefi ngs on Existence
C Conditions
CCBT ‘Can change be thought?’
Cen The Century
CH The Communist Hypothesis
Circ1 Circonstances 1
Circ2 Circonstances 2
Circ3 Circonstances 3
Circ4 Circonstances 4
Circ5 Circonstances 5
Con Conditions [English translation]
ConM Le Concept de modèle
CT Court Traité d’ontologie transitoire
D Deleuze: La Clameur de l’être
Del Deleuze: The Clamor of Being
DP Monde contemporain et désir de philosophie
E L’Ethique
EE L’Être et l’événement
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Abbreviations ix
Eth Ethics
HJD ‘Homage to Jacques Derrida’
HOI Handbook of Inaesthetics
IT ‘L’Investigation transcendantale’
LM Logiques des mondes
LW Logics of Worlds
M Manifeste pour la philosophie
M&P ‘Mathematics and philosophy: the grand style and the little
style’
Man Manifesto for Philosophy
MetP Metapolitics
MOS The Meaning of Sarkozy
NN Le Nombre et les nombres
NuN Number and Numbers
ONTS ‘Ours is not a terrible situation’
OPI ‘Ontology and politics: an interview with Alain Badiou’
OR ‘L’Offrande réservée’
OTP On the Truth Process
PAF ‘Préface’ in Après la fi nitude
PE La Philosophie et l’événement
PLN ‘Peut-on penser le nouveau en situation?’
PLP Peut-on penser la politique?
PMI Petit Manuel d’inesthétique
PND ‘Politics: a non-expressive dialectics’
Pol Polemics
PoP ‘Politics and philosophy’
PoPa Pocket Pantheon
PP ‘Philosophy and politics’
PPP Petit Panthéon portatif
S Le Siècle
SA ‘The subject of art’
SP Saint Paul: La Fondation de l’universalisme
SPe Saint Paul: The Foundation of Universalism
SR ‘Some replies to a demanding friend’
TC Théorie de la contradiction
ThS Theory of the Subject
TS Théorie du sujet
TW Theoretical Writings
W L’Antiphilosophie de Wittgenstein
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