Badiou alain

the oldest combat of the intellect
is undoubtedly the one
that plato organized
under the name of philosophy
against a precisely named enemy:
opinion

text by ALAIN BADIOU
portrait by GIASCO BERTOLI
translation by PETER BEHRMAN DE SINÉTY

The oldest combat of the intellect is undoubtedly the one that Plato organized under the name of philosophy, against a precisely named enemy: δοξα, opinion. The intellect builds arguments, refers at each step to previously clarified notions, passes from the singular to the universal and back again, in order to free individuals from fallacious images and mass constraints, and change them rather into subjects in service of a hand­ful of truths.

Now, a good many centuries later, we find ourselves presented with “opinion,” under the name of “democracy,” as the mandatory ruler of our lives and ideas — or what is left of them. The unimpeachable fetish of our…