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Christopher Watkin: Difficult atheism: post-theological thinking in Alain Badiou, Jean-Luc Nancy and Quentin Meillassoux

Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 2011, xiii + 281 pp, $105.00 (hb), $40.00 (pb)

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Notes

  1. An extremely critical discussion of Badiou’s use of mathematics is found in Nirernberg and Nirernberg (2011). Later, in Critical Inquiry 38.2 (2012) two replies were published: one by Badiou himself and the other by A.J. Bartlett and J. Clements; the Nirenbergs then replied to the replies. The interested reader can review the replies and evaluate their respective merits; for myself, I am still persuaded by the Nirenbergs: Badiou’s reply was contemptuous and dismissive, and the Bartlett/Clements reply turns on the claim that Badiou was writing as a philosopher not a mathematician. Given the central role mathematics plays in Badiou’s work, this is perhaps not the best defense; in any case, it is an excuse one would never associate with other famous philosophers who worked on set theory (e.g., Quine or Kripke), which perhaps says enough.

References

  • Nirernberg, R., & Nirenberg, D. (2011). Badiou’s numbers: A critique of mathematics as ontology numbers: A critique of mathematics as ontology. Critical Inquiry, 37(4), 583–614.

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  1. Department of Psychology and Philosophy, Texas Woman’s University, PO Box 425470, Denton, TX, 76204-5470, USA

    Brian Harding

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  1. Brian Harding
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Correspondence to Brian Harding.

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Harding, B. Christopher Watkin: Difficult atheism: post-theological thinking in Alain Badiou, Jean-Luc Nancy and Quentin Meillassoux. Int J Philos Relig 74, 359–362 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11153-013-9418-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11153-013-9418-1

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