Abstract

Alain Badiou is described as a post-continental philosopher to distinguish his work from that of thinkers such as Derrida and Foucault. Indeed he is critical of key strategies characteristic of genealogical and deconstructive critiques, since he wishes to reconnect with fundamental metaphysical and ethical preoccupations of the western philosophical tradition. In Badiou’s work metaphysical, ethical and socio-political concerns are interwoven. In this article Ioffer a critical evaluation of Badiou’s philosophy, moving from an examination of his writing on ethics to the ontological positions which underlie his ethics and socio-political critique. In my critical evaluation I draw attention to the new work going on in metaphysics in analytical philosophy, but, more fundamentally, I draw upon Bernard Lonergan’s critical realist thought.