010026 SE Deleuze vs Badiou (2021W)

Content: The philosophies of Gilles Deleuze and Alain Badiou offer alternatives to poststructuralist deconstructive and discourse-analytic approaches influenced by Heidegger. This makes them generally interesting for new perspectives in contemporary thought. At the same time, both philosophies stand in unmistakable opposition to each other. Badiou declares it openly, albeit after Deleuze's death. The opposition is also determined by both philosophies’ different points of reference when it comes to early modern philosophy. Deleuze's thinking of difference incorporates motifs from a vitalist-influenced reading of Spinoza's theory of conatus and affect. In contrast, Badiou invokes Descartes' mathematization of nature, which he radicalizes in his own mathematical ontology. The model of a nature that self-generates (Deleuze) is thus opposed to that of an essentially static nature into which (historical) movement comes only through contingent events and human subjects prescribed to them (Badiou). The consequences are considerable and extend to very different concepts of political practice.
Aim: The seminar aims at tracing lines of a virtual debate between Deleuze and Badiou. On the one hand, it wants both authors to illuminate each other, on the other hand, it wants to elaborate on ways of refering to them from an independent perspective, be it in a critical or in a productive way.
Method: The seminar is a reading seminar without any student presentations. We will begin with selected texts by Deleuze, then move on to Badiou, and conclude with Badiou's book on Deleuze The Clamor of Being, which we will analyze in light of the preceding discussions.