By Alain Badiou, Nicolas Truong
Philosophical dialogue on love's nature and meaning
Subject
Themes
In Praise of Love presents a passionate philosophical defence of love against the forces that threaten to reduce it to mere commercial transaction or empty hedonism. Through a conversational format between philosopher Alain Badiou and journalist Nicolas Truong, the work explores love as a fundamental truth procedure, a construction of reality from the perspective of difference rather than identity.
In Praise of Love presents a passionate philosophical defence of love against the forces that threaten to reduce it to mere commercial transaction or empty hedonism. Through a conversational format between philosopher Alain Badiou and journalist Nicolas Truong, the work explores love as a…
In Praise of Love emerged from a specific political and intellectual moment in contemporary French thought, responding to what Badiou perceived as twin crises facing both love and emancipatory politics in the early twenty-first century. Published in 2009 as a dialogue based on a 2008 public…
Badiou's central philosophical claim positions love as one of four fundamental truth procedures, alongside science, art and politics. A truth procedure represents a systematic process through which new truths emerge and develop within existence. Love qualifies as such a procedure because it produces…
Badiou identifies two principal threats facing love in contemporary society, both rooted in the broader cultural privileging of safety, comfort and individual calculation over risk, adventure and genuine encounter. These threats work in tandem to reduce love from a transformative truth procedure to…
Badiou establishes significant parallels between love and politics whilst rigorously maintaining their distinction. Both qualify as truth procedures that test fundamental questions through sustained engagement and commitment. However, their differing objects and methods prevent confusion or…
Badiou's philosophy of love accords extraordinary significance to two interconnected moments: the encounter that initiates love's possibility, and the declaration that transforms possibility into sustained construction. Understanding these moments and their relationship proves essential to grasping…
Badiou positions love as a form of resistance against contemporary political tendencies that privilege identity over difference, security over risk, and comfortable sameness over transformative encounter. This resistance operates not through explicit political organisation but through the…
The introduction establishes the dialogue's purpose and context whilst the first chapter identifies the twin threats facing love in contemporary society. Badiou begins by acknowledging the stock theatrical figure of the philosopher in love, whose Stoic wisdom evaporates when confronted by dazzling…
The second chapter surveys how philosophers have approached love throughout history, revealing oscillations between extreme positions that Badiou ultimately rejects in favour of his own conception. Philosophy's relationship with love proves far from straightforward, ranging from outright hostility…
The third chapter develops Badiou's positive conception of love as construction rather than merely ecstatic encounter or contractual arrangement. Love begins with two fundamental elements: the separation or disjuncture based on difference between two people and their infinite subjectivities, most…
The fourth chapter elaborates love as a truth procedure, examining the vital role of declaration and fidelity in transforming chance encounter into sustained construction. Badiou positions love as an experience whereby a certain kind of truth is constructed, specifically the truth about Two and what…
Chapters five and six explore the relationships between love and the other truth procedures of politics and art, whilst examining how various ideologies have attempted to capture love's intensity. Both chapters maintain Badiou's insistence on rigorous separation between these domains whilst…
The final chapter and conclusion explore love's relationship to theatrical performance and position love as resistance against contemporary reactionary politics that privilege identity over difference. These sections synthesise the dialogue's themes whilst emphasising love's political significance…
By Alain Badiou, Nicolas Truong
Subject
Themes
In Praise of Love presents a passionate philosophical defence of love against the forces that threaten to reduce it to mere commercial transaction or empty hedonism. Through a conversational format between philosopher Alain Badiou and journalist Nicolas Truong, the work explores love as a fundamental truth procedure, a construction of reality from the perspective of difference rather than identity.