In Praise of Love

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.

Gorgeous glorious thoughtful- what we need to think about in a world of anxiety and antagonism - so uplifting. Highly recommend

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.

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.

Not a seriously considered philosophical work on love.

Lovely little book.

We must re-invent love is Badiou's message. How do we do that? He tries to suggest ways of thinking about it.

One of my favorite works of modern philosophy.

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.

exploring this just before marriage of my sister, i realised how apt this book is - how much our knowing each other is a matter of the moment we meet, and the confluence of space and time, and perception of there being someone else apart from ourself out there ... i ended up reading a portion at her wedding! accessible and allusive writing, it is not dry philosophy by any means but gets across several essential ideas of this important philosopher - one of the most important of our time

Loved it, Badiou can be difficult to read but the interview form here worked very well. I love his ideas particularly his thoughts on risk in love and that internet dating sites falsely try to make us feel that there can be love without risk.The notion of love being a value that we take build and take forward from a first significant encounter or moment was surprising as I wouldn't have expected him to hold up romantic love as a starting point.

arrived on time and as described. Thanks.

It is great to read a philosopher on these issues with a fresh and sound approach to this most enigmatic topic in human society.