TEHRAN (IBNA) -- Philosophy book, ‘In Praise of Politics’ (2017) by noted French philosopher Alain ‎Badiou and journalist Aude Lancelin has been published in Persian and is avai;able to ‎Iranian readers. ‎
The book, which is a dialogue between Badiou and Lancelin, has been translated into Persian by Majid Vahid. Markaz Publishing in Tehran has released ‘In Praise of Politics’ in 90 pages.
Against the backdrop of an alarming rise in authoritarianism and the crisis of liberal democracy, few would consider extoling the virtues of politics today. Yet in this lively dialogue with journalist Aude Lancelin, leading French thinker Alain Badiou argues that it is precisely through politics that humanity can still achieve its most ambitious aims.
As power becomes ever more concentrated in the hands of the state and global corporations, the role of the citizen is reduced to little more than ritual. But Badiou emphasizes that politics is concerned not just with power and the state, but also with justice.
So the central question of politics is “What is a just power?”, and the debate over politics is fundamentally about the norms to which power is subject and its relationship to a community- a community that is able to take control of its own destiny and provide its own direction, based on a shared standard of justice.
This engaging dialogue, in which Badiou articulates his view of politics with exceptional clarity, will be of great value to anyone interested in radical politics today.
Alain Badiou formerly held the chair of Philosophy at the École normale supérieure (ENS) and is the founder of the faculty of Philosophy of the Université de Paris VIII with Gilles Deleuze, Michel Foucault and Jean-François Lyotard. He teaches philosophy at the College international de philosphie in Paris.
Aude Lancelin is a French journalist. She was previously deputy editor-in-chief at two prominent French weekly magazines: Marianne from 2011 to 2014 and L’Obs from 2014 to 2016. She joined Le Média in 2017 and became its director in July 2018.