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In Praise of Love Kindle Edition

by Alain Badiou (Author), Nicolas Truong (Author), Peter Bush (Translator) Format: Kindle Edition
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 284 ratings
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The renowned French philosopher’s “ode to love’s power to unite in the face of eternity, and its optimism in the face of pain” (Publishers Weekly).
 
In a world rife with consumerism, where online dating promises risk-free romance and love is all too often seen as a mere 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 intellectual’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.
 
Through thought-provoking dialogue edited from a conversation between Badiou and Truong, a vibrant cast of thinkers are invoked: Kierkegaard, Plato, de Beauvoir, Proust, and more, create a new narrative of love in the face of twenty-first-century modernity. Moving, zealous, and wise, Badiou’s “paean to the anticapitalist, antiessentialist, unifying power of love” urges us not to fear it but to see it as a magnificent undertaking that compels us to explore others and to move away from an obsession with ourselves (Publishers Weekly).
 
“Finally, the cure for the pornographic, utilitarian exchange of favors to which love has been reduced in America. Alain Badiou is our philosopher of love.” —Simon Critchley, author of The Faith of the Faithless
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  1. Print length
    114 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    The New Press
  5. Publication date
    November 27, 2012
  6. File size
    1082 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  10. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for In Praise of Love: "In just a few short chapters, Badiou lays bare his concern for love's well being in the age of consumerism and online dating."
―JSTOR Daily "Finally, the cure for the pornographic, utilitarian exchange of favors to which love has been reduced in America. Alain Badiou is our philosopher of love."
―Simon Critchley, Hans Jonas Professor at The New School for Social Research, author of The Faith of the Faithless

"Elegant and deeply human, In Praise of Love is a conversational but erudite retort to the antiseptic promises of online dating sites for 'safe love' without risk, the romantic notion that love is the ecstatic melding of two into one, and the philosophical skepticism that love is little more than a cover story for sexual lust."
―Pamela Haag, Ph.D., author of Marriage Confidential: Love in the Post-Romantic Age, columnist at Big Think magazine

Praise for Alain Badiou:
"A figure like Plato or Hegel walks here among us!"
―Slavoj Zizek

"An heir to Jean-Paul Sartre and Louis Althusser."
―New Statesman

About the Author

Born in Rabat, Morocco, in 1937, Alain Badiou is a leading French philosopher. He is the author of The Meaning of Sarkozy, Being and Event, Ethics: An Essay on the Understanding of Evil, and The Communist Hypothesis. He lives in Paris. Nicholas Truong is a writer, journalist, and regular contributor to the French daily Le Monde. Peter Bush is an award-winning literary translator. He lives in Barcelona.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00A0WE5L8
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ The New Press (November 27, 2012)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ November 27, 2012
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1082 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 114 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 284 ratings

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Alain Badiou

Alain Badiou

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Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
284 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Marquito
5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Read. A Perfect Gift.
Reviewed in the United States on July 25, 2019
Verified Purchase
Excellent book. I’ve read it twice through and took a third pass to revisit passages that spoke to me. It presents a unique perspective on love. It’s philosophical to be sure, but highly accessible at the same time.
3 people found this helpful
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Cubamerican
4.0 out of 5 stars In Praise of Love
Reviewed in the United States on September 22, 2012
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A concise and thoughtful philosophical treatise on love from a communist French philosopher/playwright. For Badiou love is a thought not a feeling, providing a perspective previously explored by Scott Peck in "The Road Less Traveled". He decries internet dating as safe love and reminds us that love sees the difference in people and embraces them. With love seemingly lost in our world, reading this book is a worthwhile reminder that we must will ourselves to love.
16 people found this helpful
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Alvaro Gonzalez Magnolfi
5.0 out of 5 stars Nice book
Reviewed in the United States on January 3, 2023
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Not easy but interesting discussion about what it is love and how philosophy/humans deal with it. Some interesting ideas arise that go beyond what is expected; like the discussion about fraternity
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Christina Haupt
5.0 out of 5 stars To love unconditionally and embrace difference
Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2019
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Alain Badiou once again captures me. Eloquently written, with a poetic and simultaneously realistic perspective on what it means to love and be loved we dive into the world of this frighteningly complex emotion.
2 people found this helpful
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Mary O'Mara
3.0 out of 5 stars Three Stars
Reviewed in the United States on May 2, 2016
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Short and kind of lightweight.
One person found this helpful
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Larry Baker
4.0 out of 5 stars Accessible and Insightful
Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2012
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If you are looking to read Badiou but don't want to wade through Being and Event then this might be the book for you. I found it to be an easy read and very insightful at times. It did, however, leave me wanting more from him on this topic.

Thanks,
5 people found this helpful
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louise
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful
Reviewed in the United States on August 17, 2017
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Gorgeous glorious thoughtful- what we need to think about in a world of anxiety and antagonism - so uplifting. Highly recommend
4 people found this helpful
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abbeysbooks
5.0 out of 5 stars Badiou and the reinvention of love.
Reviewed in the United States on September 13, 2014
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We must re-invent love is Badiou's message. How do we do that? He tries to suggest ways of thinking about it.
2 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Frank Calberg
4.0 out of 5 stars In praise of love
Reviewed in Germany on March 13, 2023
Verified Purchase
Top takeaways from reading the book:
- Page 5: To what extent is it possible to plan for a safe relationship, a perfect kind of love that brings with it only pleasure and does not involve any suffering, by sharing lots of information about yourself and the other person before dating?
- Page 39: We like love because we can, through love, experience the world other than through a solitary consciousness.
- Page 40: Love begins with an encounter.
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Joe
5.0 out of 5 stars Great for our generation
Reviewed in Canada on December 31, 2020
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While I'm not the biggest fan of conversations/interviews being transcribed into a book, the concepts are phenomenal and important to this generation. Its a quick read which is great in this case. To the point!
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Ángel Herrera
5.0 out of 5 stars Punto por punto
Reviewed in Mexico on July 10, 2019
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Uno de los libros más profundamente comprometidos con la vida de hoy, con la vida humana en su dimensión más íntima y cercana, tanto que después de la lectura del filósofo, del artista, del político, podría parecernos ya obvio el reconocer sus vivencias y, al menos, la intuición de sus ideas en nuestras propias vivencias amorosas, en nuestros compromisos, en nuestra mirada desdoblada al otro, transformada con el otro en una visión de dos, a cada instante, en cada suspiro, punto por punto.
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PK
5.0 out of 5 stars Reading worth a pause.
Reviewed in India on December 7, 2018
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Beautifully written. Very perceptive, reasonable and well articulated.
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christoff
5.0 out of 5 stars Love is at risk in today's world - from all sides. It is worth fighting for. Highly recommended book!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 12, 2017
Verified Purchase
The beginning of love is a separation. Love is the acknowledgement of my need. Love is the admission that being alone is not an option. That the other is necessary. And this other, no matter what gender, is always distinguished from myself. One is not identical with the other. The other one was from the beginning in this world as a difference.

The theory of the market assumes that every person is merely pursuing his own interests. In the days of neoliberalism, this idea has now penetrated all the pores of society and has also affected love affairs. Badiou stresses the importance of love as a counter-proof to the thesis of the omnipotence of self-interest. Love also shows that "one can experience the world differently than through a lonely consciousness and experience it differently".

Badiou sees the love threatened from both sides and understands its defense or even reinvention as a "philosophical task". This love is not simply an encounter and relationship between two individuals, but "a construction, a life that is no longer going from the point of view of the one, but of the two."

How can love be realized in the long run? This is the decisive question of Badiou. He understands it as a "stubborn adventure, the adventurous side is necessary, but the stubbornness is no less."

But, of course, an upright love does not protect itself from the disaster. A separation can break into every love, there is no protection. The uncertainty always remains, as long as one under love is something different from a comprehensive collision insurance. There is no love without risk for Badiou - only from admitting the unpredictable LOVE gains its intensity on the on the stage of the two.
7 people found this helpful
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