Sunday, 8 December 2019

Philosophy in the Present by Badiou and Žižek



I read this book a few years ago, and had the feeling that I had made no sense of it at all and so it went back on the “to read” pile, and so I took it with me to Gran Canaria this year to have a second go – it might not be typical “beach” read but having the opportunity for a few uninterrupted hours helped to keep at least some grip on the ideas Badiou and Žižek were sharing.

They are exploring how Philosophy relates to contemporary issues, that simply asking a philosopher their opinion on a political issues is not getting a philosophical response, but there are properly philosophical responses that can be offered – philosophy can not tell you who to vote for in an election, but it might tell you that the underpinnings of a so called democratic system are logically flawed.

Philosophers, in the same way as anyone else, have a duty to call out injustice but just because a Philosopher said it doesn’t make it philosophy.

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