For a Politics of the Common Good

This volume of conversations between Alain Badiou and Peter Engelmann focuses on the concrete political situation in the world of today. Here the validity and applicability of Badiou’s ideas are tested in relation to the great social and political problems of our time, including terrorism, migration, the surge in support for nationalist and populist parties and the growing gap between rich and poor. Badiou argues that in the age of today’s globalized capitalism, with its division of labour on a global scale and the worldwide interconnection of information through the Internet, there are no longer any national solutions. Because nations and states lose meaning in favour of transnational corporations in globalized capitalism, resistance to capitalism must by definition be global too. Only a politics that defines itself as a politics for all and does not act in the interests of one particular group – whether a nation, religion or community of shared values – can lead the world out of the current crisis of globalized capitalism.

Foreword by Peter Engelmann

First Conversation

The Situation of the Left Today and the Necessity of an Alternative

The Democratic Discourse

Communism as Modern Politics?

Second Conversation

The New Imperialism

Politics of Identity

The Principle of the Common Good, or: Beyond the Economy

Afterword: On Trump

Notes

‘Badiou's powerful exposition of the unfinished project of revolutionary Marxism makes a compelling case for the universality of communist politics. Elaborated with respect to pressing contemporary problems, his vision for a communist politics for us is inspiring, necessary, and – best of all – possible.’
Jodi Dean, Hobart and William Smith Colleges

“[a] lively and engaging discussion.”
Marx & Philosophy Review of Books

Alain Badiou, former Maoist and political activist, is a philosopher, mathematician and novelist. He lives in Paris.

Peter Engelmann is a publisher, philosopher and editor of numerous texts by French philosophers in the areas of postmodernism and deconstruction.