In Praise Of Love

A new century, new threats to love . . . Love without risks is like war without deaths - but, today, love is threatened by an alliance of liberalism and hedonism. Caught between consumerism and casual sexual encounters devoid of passion, love - without the key ingredient of chance - is in danger of withering on the vine. In In Praise of Love, Alain Badiou takes on contemporary 'dating agency' conceptions of love that come complete with zero-risk insurance - like US zero-casualty bombs. He develops a new take on love that sees it as an adventure, and an opportunity for re-invention, in a constant exploration of otherness and difference that leads the individual out of an obsession with identity and self. Liberal, libertine and libertarian reductions of love to instant pleasure and non-commitment bite the dust as Badiou invokes a supporting cast of thinkers from Plato to Lacan via Karl Marx to form a new narrative of romance, relationships and sex - a narrative that does not fear love.

A new century, new threats to love . . . Love without risks is like war without deaths - but, today, love is threatened by an alliance of liberalism and hedonism. Caught between consumerism and casual sexual encounters devoid of passion, love - without the key ingredient of chance - is in danger of withering on the vine. In In Praise of Love, Alain Badiou takes on contemporary 'dating agency' conceptions of love that come complete with zero-risk insurance - like US zero-casualty bombs. He develops a new take on love that sees it as an adventure, and an opportunity for re-invention, in a constant exploration of otherness and difference that leads the individual out of an obsession with identity and self. Liberal, libertine and libertarian reductions of love to instant pleasure and non-commitment bite the dust as Badiou invokes a supporting cast of thinkers from Plato to Lacan via Karl Marx to form a new narrative of romance, relationships and sex - a narrative that does not fear love.

In a world rife with consumerism, where online dating promises risk-free romance and love is all too often seen only as a variant of desire and hedonism, Alain Badiou believes that love is under threat. Taking to heart Rimbaud's famous line "love needs reinventing," In Praise of Love is the celebrated French philosopher's passionate treatise in defense of love. For Badiou, love is an existential project, a constantly unfolding quest for truth. This quest begins with the chance encounter, an event that forever changes two individuals, challenging them "to see the world from the point of view of two rather than one." This, Badiou believes, is love's most essential transforming power. Invoking a vibrant cast of thinkers, from Kierkegaard, Plato, and de Beauvoir to Proust, Lacan, and Beckett, Badiou creates a new narrative of love in the face of twenty-first-century modernity. Moving, zealous, and wise, In Praise of Love urges us not to fear love but to see it as an adventure, a magnificent undertaking that compels us to explore others and to move away from an obsession with ourselves.

In a world rife with consumerism, where online dating promises risk-free romance and love is all too often seen only as a variant of desire and hedonism, Alain Badiou believes that love is under threat. Taking to heart Rimbaud's famous line "love needs reinventing," In Praise of Love is the celebrated French philosopher's passionate treatise in defense of love. For Badiou, love is an existential project, a constantly unfolding quest for truth. This quest begins with the chance encounter, an event that forever changes two individuals, challenging them "to see the world from the point of view of two rather than one." This, Badiou believes, is love's most essential transforming power. Invoking a vibrant cast of thinkers, from Kierkegaard, Plato, and de Beauvoir to Proust, Lacan, and Beckett, Badiou creates a new narrative of love in the face of twenty-first-century modernity. Moving, zealous, and wise, In Praise of Love urges us not to fear love but to see it as an adventure, a magnificent undertaking that compels us to explore others and to move away from an obsession with ourselves.