Badiou's Ontology of the Present: Society, Economy and Culture in Transition

Emerging from the twin shadows of neoliberalism and postmodernism, Michael Hauser paints our current historical moment as an interregnum, born of but departing from those two towering modes of late 20th-century culture. Seen in this light, the preoccupation of populism, identity politics, hybrid wars and other contemporary phenomena can be seen as the result of the disintegration of neoliberal agendas and postmodernist sensibilities. Drawing together a vast range of thinkers and theoretical models, from Gramsci to Jameson, Hauser traces the reasons for the decline and demise of the grand narratives of the twentieth century and the ideologies that replaced them. His explanation of the foundational ‘epicycloid’ and disintegrative ‘elliptical’ stages of political movements then lays the ground for a deep engagement with Alain Badiou, understanding his ‘transitory ontology’ as a philosophical response to our interregnum. By expanding and unpicking Badiou’s thoughts on mathematics, politics, art, love, and the conditions of doing philosophy, we can imagine a point beyond the present moment in history.