“Was not their mistake once more bred of the life of slavery that they had been living?—a life which was always looking upon everything, except mankind, animate and inanimate—‘nature,’ as people used to call it—as one thing, and mankind as another, it was natural to people thinking in this way, that they should try to make ‘nature’ their slave, since they thought ‘nature’ was something outside them” — William Morris


Monday, November 29, 2010

Harman vs. Badiou

I literally can't wait to see this project Graham promises for 2011. (Read through the post.) My very small corner of it has to do with a study of why on Earth Zizek would be so hostile to Buddhism (it has to do with withdrawn objects). In general I share the sense that Badiou is massively, massively overrated and really “wrong” as Graham puts it. When you're reduced to saying “transfinite sets, therefore I am correct” you are not too far from the kids in my daughter's playground at school who shout “googleplex!” to stop an argument. (And I'm pretty sure Cantor wouldn't be a Badiouian to save his life.) That and Graham's much stronger argument that until we see right Badiouians, we have to doubt the view.

Another great reason to do this: the “meta” syndrome and trumpery evinced by Zizekians and Badiouians.

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