Derrida, Badiou and the Formal Imperative

In this path-breaking study Christopher Norris proposes a transformed understanding of the much-exaggerated differencesbetween analytic and continental philosophy. While keeping the analytic tradition squarely in view his book focuses on the work of Jacques Derrida andAlain Badiou, two of the most original and significant figures in the recent history of ideas. Norris argues that these thinkers have decisively reconfigured the terrain of contemporary philosophy and, between them, pointeda way beyond some of those seemingly intractable issues that have polarised debate on both sides of the notional rift between the analytic and continentaltraditions. In particular his book sets out to show - against the received analytic wisdom - that continental philosophy has its own analytic resourcesand is capable of bringing some much-needed fresh insight to bear on problems in philosophy of language, logic and mathematics. Norris provides not only aunique comparative account of Derrida's and Badiou's work but also a remarkably wide-ranging assessment of their joint contribution to philosophy's current -if widely resisted - potential for self-transformation.

Christopher Norris is Distinguished Research Professor in Philosophy at the University of Cardiff, Wales, and has taught at many universities in India, Australia, Greece, Spain, Germany, Canada, China, the US, and elsewhere. He is the author of numerous books on aspects of philosophy, critical
theory, and modern intellectual history.

Acknowledgments \ Introduction \ 1. Diagonals: truth-procedures in Derrida and Badiou \ 2. Badiou: truth, ethics, and the formal imperative \ 3. Deconstruction, Logic and "Ordinary Language": Derrida
on the limits of thought \ 4. Tractatus Mathematico-Politicus: Badiou's Being and Event \ 5. Of Supplementarity: Derrida on truth, language, and deviant logic \ 6. Summa Pro Mathematica: further perspectives on Being and Event \ Notes \ Indexof Names