Towards a New Concept of Existence [excerpt]
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A Reading of the Seminar From an Other to the other Towards a New Concept of Existence 35 Propositions from Logiques des mondes The Element of Sacrifice in Romantic Love Lacanian Psychoanalysis and Revolutionary Marxism Materialism, or the Inexistence of the Big Other Toril Goksøyr and Camilla Martens |
Alain Badiou
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As all of you know perfectly well, the fundamental problem is to distinguish on the one hand, being as such, being qua being, and, on the other hand, existence, as a category which precisely is not reducible to that of being. It is the heart of the matter. This difference between being and existence is often the result of the consideration of a special type of being. It is the case for Heidegger, with the distinction between Sein and Dasein. If we take into account the etymological framework, we can see that "existence," which depends on Dasein, is a topological concept. It means to be here, to be in the world. And in fact, I also shall propose to determine the very general concept of "existence" by the necessity of thinking the place, or the world, of everything which is. And this place is not deducible from being as such.
The Thing is: das Ding, maybe das Ur-Ding. That is this form of being which certainly is after the indifference of nothingness, but also before the qualitative difference of object. We must formalize the concept of "thing" between, on the one hand, the absolute priority of nothingness and, on the other hand, the complexity of objects. A thing is always the pre-objective basis of objectivity. And that is the reason for which a thing is nothing other than a multiplicity. Not a multiplicity of objects, not a system of qualities, a network of differences, but a multiplicity of multiplicities, and a multiplicity of multiplicities of multiplicities. Art: Pablo Ortiz Monasterio Dispara, México City - C-print, 1990 courtesy Rose Gallery, Santa Monica. Subscribe to Lacanian Ink click here. Purchase Lacanian Ink click here. |
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