The first step in the clouds: On Alain Badiou’s theory of the evental site (in Polish)

Abstract

In line with the title of Alain Badiou’s main book, Being and Event, his thought breaks down into two components: one that deals with being, and another where pride of place is given to the being’s other, namely the category of event. The former involves scientific findings, which rewrite the axioms of the set theory for the purposes of ontology. Only the second part is properly philosophical, describing the possibilities provided by the otherworldly “miracle” of the event. On the very border between ontology and philosophy Badiou places the evental site: the last concept of Badiou’s system that is fully intelligible without resorting to the metaphysical leap known as the event. The evental site does not settle the matter of the event’s actual occurrence but it allows us to sensibly determine the place or site of its coming. In my paper I undertake the task of reconstructing this crucial concept of Badiou’s system.