Contemporary philosopher Alain Badiou argues that social change requires an unpredictable and traumatic event that creates truth. After the event, individuals and groups search through the elements of society and assemble the elements that are true to the event to form a truth, and this truth is what drives social change.
Contemporary philosopher Alain Badiou argues that politics is about changing the world, and that it is not enough to elect good leaders and run governments well to create a better world, but that social structures must be changed. Political activity is often stuck in day-to-day management and operations, but Badiou argues that it needs to go beyond that. How does social structure change? Badiou explains that social structure changes as a result of an ‘event’ that creates a ‘truth’.
According to Badiou, an event is something that is shocking enough to shake up the existing social structure and cannot be planned or predicted in advance. It is also something that cannot be intentionally caused; it causes a tremendous shock to society, but it happens at a specific point in society, not throughout society. Badiou emphasizes that events are temporary and fade away, but they are the starting point for social change. He cites the Paris Commune of 1871 in Paris, France, as a prime example of an event.
Badiou believes that when a unique event occurs that breaks the existing social structure, members of society give it a “name” that has never been given before, and this name remains a trace in society even after the event has disappeared. After the event has disappeared, individuals or groups recall the event through the name and attempt to examine the relevance of the event to each element in society. In other words, individuals or groups can examine the institutions, behaviors, and statements in society to determine whether they can continue the event or not. This process of identifying elements in society that are faithful to the event and those that are not is what Badiou calls “exploration,” and the standard of judgment for exploration is “fidelity. The individual or group engaged in exploration does not select a particular element of society with a specific intention to examine its fidelity, but rather examines the relationship of the elements encountered in society to the event.
In other words, for Badiou, truth is not the opposite of falsehood, but rather the result of an exploration triggered by an event and the set of elements in society that are faithful to the event. In Badiou’s view, this truth can be created in the realms of science, art, and love, in addition to politics. Thanks to his insistence that truth can be created in these different domains, changes in social structures can be understood in a broader sense.
Badiou calls the parts of the truth-making process, or truth-process, the “subjects” of truth. A person who participates in the truth process is not a subject in and of himself, but only that which is faithful to the events of his or her actions and utterances. Some criticize Badiou’s view as trivializing the individual. But there is a flip side to this. If a person is politically active and engaged in artistic endeavors, this activity can be part of the political subject and part of the artistic subject, so the individual can be active in many areas.
In particular, Badiou emphasizes in his philosophy that events are essential to the creation of truth, but not truth itself, and that it is the truth that is created over time, rather than chance events, that is important for the transformation of social structures. This ties in with Badiou’s emphasis on the importance of courage. For Badiou, courage is the courage to pursue the truth, the courage to persist in the task of separating elements in society into what is true and what is not. In the end, Badiou believes that in order to change social structures, we need to be interested in what has already happened, not what is to come, and work to build on it. This is especially important in the current political and social climate. By reevaluating past events and constantly exploring how they affect the current social structure, we can find ways to change society for the better.
Indeed, in the modern world, we face many challenges. Advances in technology, economic inequality, environmental issues, and more. To solve these problems, we need to go beyond mere management and operations and seek fundamental structural changes. Badiou’s philosophy emphasizes the need for this change and shows us how we can find the truth in events and use that truth to reorganize society. In doing so, we will be able to create a more just and fair society.
