Alain Badiou: The Rational Kernel of the Hegelian Dialectic (1977–)

“The Rational Kernel of the Hegelian Dialectic is the last in a trilogy of political-philosophical essays, preceded by Theory of Contradiction and On Ideology, written during the dark days at the end of the decade after May ‘68. With the late 1970’s “triumphant restoration” in Europe, China and the United States, Badiou and his collaborators return to Hegel with a Chinese twist. By translating, annotating and providing commentary to a contemporaneous text by Chinese Hegelian Zhang Shi Ying, Badiou and his collaborators attempt to diagnose the status of the dialectic in their common political and philosophical horizon. Readers of Badiou’s more recent work will find a crucial developmental step in his work in ontology and find echoes of his current project of a ‘communist hypothesis’. This translation is accompanied by a recent interview that questions Badiou on the discrepancies between this text and his current thought, on the nature of dialectics, negativity, modality and his understanding of the historical, political and geographical distance that his text introduces into the present.”

Originally published as Le Noyau rationnel de la dialectique hégélienne, François Maspero, 1977

Alain Badiou, Joel Bellassen, and Louis Mossot’s translations, introductions and commentary on a text by Zhang Shiying
Edited and translated by Tzuchien Tho
Publisher Re.press, Victoria, Australia, December 2011
Transmission series
Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 2.5 License
ISBN 978-0-9808197-6-2
138 pages

Publisher

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Charles Babbage: Babbage’s Calculating Engines: Being a Collection of Papers Relating to Them; Their History and Construction (1889/2010)

“The famous and prolific nineteenth-century mathematician, engineer and inventor Charles Babbage (1791–1871) was an early pioneer of computing. He planned several calculating machines, but none was built in his lifetime. On his death his youngest son, Henry P. Babbage, was charged with the task of completing an unfinished volume of papers on the machines, which was finally published in 1889 and is reissued here. The papers, by a variety of authors, were collected from journals including The Philosophical Magazine, The Edinburgh Review and Scientific Memoirs. They relate to the construction and potential application of Charles Babbage’s calculating engines, notably the Difference Engine and the more complex Analytical Engine, which was to be programmed using punched cards. The book also includes correspondence with members of scientific societies, as well as proceedings, catalogues and drawings. Included is a complete catalogue of the drawings of the Analytical Engine.”

Originally published by E. and F. N. Spon, 125, Strand, London, 1889
Editor Henry P. Babbage
Publisher Cambridge University Press, 2010
Cambridge Library Collection – Mathematics
ISBN 1108000967, 9781108000963
388 pages

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Charles Babbage: On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures (1832/2010)

“In this famous book, first published in 1832, Charles Babbage (1791–1871), the mathematician, philosopher, engineer and inventor who originated the concept of a programmable computer, surveys manufacturing practices and discusses the political, moral and economic factors affecting them. The book met with hostility from the publishing industry on account of Babbage’s analysis of the manufacture and sale of books. Babbage describes the many different printing processes of the time, analyses the costs of book production and explains the publication process, before discussing the ‘too large’ profit margins of booksellers. Babbage succeeded in his aim ‘to avoid all technical terms, and to describe in concise language’, making this an eminently readable historical account. His analysis and promotion of mechanisation and efficient ‘division of labour’ (still known as the ‘Babbage principle’) continue to resonate strongly for modern industrial engineering.”

Originally published by Charles Knight, Pall Mall East., London, 1832
Publisher Cambridge University Press, 2010
Cambridge Library Collection – Printing and Publishing History
ISBN 1108009107, 9781108009102
344 pages

Publisher

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