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Pocket Pantheon: Figures of Postwar Philosophy

by Alain Badiou Translated by David Macey

A journey through twentieth-century philosophy with the titan of French thought.

Pocket Pantheon is an invitation to engage with the greats of postwar Western thought, such as Lacan, Sartre and Foucault, in the company of one of today's leading political and philosophical minds. Alain Badiou draws on his encounters with this pantheon – his teachers, opponents and allies – to offer unique insights into both the authors and their work. These studies form an accessible, authoritative distillation of continental theory and a capsule history of a period in Western thought.

Hardback, 196 pages

ISBN: 9781844673575

July 2009

$19.95 / £9.99

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Part of the Pocket Communism series

Reviews

“A figure like Plato or Hegel walks here among us!”

– Slavoj Zizek
“One of the most important philosophers writing today.”

– Joan Copjec
“An heir to Jean-Paul Sartre and Louis Althusser.”

– New Statesman

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The Essential Verso Undergraduate Reading List

If you think the latest tome of Giddens’ Sociology is the one textbook you need to get you through your undergraduate days, think again. Impress your tutor and learn something beyond the lecture theatre with these essential Verso titles.

Bolster any politics, philosophy, economics, literature, sociology or history essay with one of these books and not only score the grade, but begin your lifelong love affair with radical writers.

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By Molly Osberg / 27 March 2013 / 7 comments
Communism, A New Beginning? conference now online

We're pleased to finally post video from our Communism, A New Beginning? conference from back in October in the debut of our incredibly novel YouTube page. It's an interesting look back to a weekend of what was the first month anniversary of Occupy Wall Street; around when Étienne Balibar spoke on "Communism as Commitment, Imagination, and Politics," peaceful protesters just uptown at Times Square were arrested and en route to Central Booking.

Here is a guide to the talks given at this conference:

DAY 1

Alain Badiou: Politics and State, Mass Movement and Terror (presented by Bruno Bosteels)

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By Ryan Healey / 14 June 2012 / 10 comments
An exceptional encounter: Alain Badiou and Michel Foucault in conversation

Two giants of French philosophy discuss psychology, Western culture and the Kantian turn in the history of philosophy in this hidden gem of a video. Michel Foucault is interviewed by Alain Badiou, the acclaimed author of many books including Pocket Pantheon, and the forthcoming The Adventure of French Philosophy (2012), which both engage with Foucault's thought.

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By Leo Goretti / 14 December 2011 / 2 comments

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Other books by Alain Badiou Translated by David Macey

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Ethics

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Alain Badiou takes on the standard bearer of the “linguistic turn” in modern philosophy and anatomizes the “antiphilosophy” of Ludwig Wittgenstein....