Alain Badiou

Alain Badiou’s father was a mathematician, a member of the Resistance in France during World War II, and mayor of Toulouse. His mother had an aggregation in classical literature. Alain Badiou studied philosophy at the École normale supérieure (ENS), where he got to know Althusser, Canguilhem, and Lacan. He began to protest against the war in Algeria. Professor Reims and then at the university Paris-VIII when it was founded following the student riots in May 1968, he was part of the Maoist movement until the 1980s. During this period, travelling companion to Antoine Vitez, he turned towards playwriting (L’Écharpe rouge). In 1988he published L’Être et l’événement, completed in 2006 with Logiques des mondes. In 1999, he became a professor at the ENS, and professor emeritus in 2004. His oeuvre includes novels, plays, and essays on philosophy, politics, and mathematics.