The process of being and the production of truth in the philosophy of Alain Badiou

Abstract

Alain Badiou re-examined the core issues of metaphysics—being, existence, and their relation to truth—despite contemporary philosophies’ attempts to transcend or deny metaphysics. These issues continue to exert a profound influence, and such philosophies have been unable to evade addressing their fundamental questions. Badiou approached them from a distinct perspective, combining philosophy with mathematics, granting philosophy new precision. At the same time, he moved beyond the determinism of logic and mathematics through his conception of the production of truth. For Badiou, truth is contingent upon the event, which reshapes the structure of the real world, corresponding to what this study designates as the “operability of being.” In this respect, Badiou diverged from predecessors such as Heidegger, who grounded existence in Dasein—consciousness—emphasizing human centrality in being. By contrast, Badiou rooted being in the mathematical One-infinite, reframing the metaphysical foundation of existence and truth.