Alain Badiou: In Praise of Love (2009–) [French, English]

“A new century, new threats to love… Love without risks is like war without deaths – but, today, love is threatened by an alliance of liberalism and hedonism. Caught between consumerism and casual sexual encounters devoid of passion, love – without the key ingredient of chance – is in danger of withering on the vine. In In Praise of Love, Alain Badiou takes on contemporary ‘dating agency’ conceptions of love that come complete with zero-risk insurance – like US zero-casualty bombs. He develops a new take on love that sees it as an adventure, and an opportunity for re-invention, in a constant exploration of otherness and difference that leads the individual out of an obsession with identity and self. Liberal, libertine and libertarian reductions of love to instant pleasure and non-commitment bite the dust as Badiou invokes a supporting cast of thinkers from Plato to Lacan via Karl Marx to form a new narrative of romance, relationships and sex – a narrative that does not fear love.”

With Nicolas Truong
Publisher Flammarion, 2009
Café Voltaire series
ISBN 2081233010, 9782081233010
90 pages

English edition
Translated by Peter Bush
Publisher Serpent’s Tail, 2012
ISBN 1846687799, 9781846687792
104 pages

Badiou’s lecture on love (2008)
Review: Fabian Van Onzen (Marx & Philosophy Review of Books, 2012).

Publisher (FR)
Publisher (EN)

Éloge de l’amour (French, EPUB, updated on 2020-7-5)
In Praise of Love (English, updated on 2020-7-5)