The conditions

Abstract

The concept Perhaps the crucial concept in Badiou's work since Being and Event (1988) is that of “conditions”. The concept is developed between Theory of the Subject (1982) and Being and Event, and is the marker of an irreversible internal rupture. Its importance is consecrated in the title of a collection of essays Conditions (1992), and its implications explored in every significant text from Manifesto for Philosophy (1989) to Logics of Worlds (2006). This is not to say that there are not abiding interests throughout Badiou's early writings and his post-Being and Event work. But abiding interests are not necessarily evidence of real continuity. The rupture in Badiou's work between Theory o..