Conditional Notes on a New Republic

Abstract

We attempt to discern what Badiou's philosophical system provides for thinking of education in a form which separates it from its contemporary representation in the state. These notes oppose to this state form Badiou's declaration that ‘the only education is an education by truths'. We pursue this in three sections. First, we will address the significance and function of the term ‘conditions'. Secondly we will address Badiou's essay ‘Art and Philosophy' from Handbook of Inaesthetics, the only essay in fact where Badiou addresses education in a specific manner and in which Badiou discusses the link between art and philosophy in terms of the ‘pedagogical theme': A theme, he says, that has been brought to collapse. Thirdly we will attempt to discern what might make up what Badiou refers to as the ‘fourth modality' of the link between philosophy and its conditions through a somewhat speculative discussion of the dual ‘militant' praxis known in Badiou's work as ‘subtraction' and ‘forcing'.