On militantism in thought : a formal consideration of Badiou’s political subject.

Is it possible to speak of a militant philosophy or a form of philosophical militantism? This paper investigates to what extent Alain Badiou's philosophical system can be considered an attempt in this direction. As a whole, the argument examines how Badiou's work, from Theory of the Subject to Being and Event, can be read as conditioned by his own Maoist engagement, although he states that philosophy is structurally unable to produce any truth itself. A first part focuses on how this engagement became inscribed in the formal figure of the subject in the early work – most importantly in Theory of the Subject. A second part attempts to make sense of a certain structural continuity between Theory of the Subject and Being and Event in order to show that a 'Maoist' core remains somehow preserved. To this latter purpose, the paper detects an implied, 'primitive' ontological stance inspired by Lacan in Theory of the Subject, which can be related to the decisive and 'systematic' ontological strategy of Being and Event. In this way, the argument elucidates how Badiou's work insistently pushes upon the structural boundaries set out for philosophy and its conditions.

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