Marx, an ‘Antiphilosopher’? Or Badiou’s Philosophical Politics of Demarcation

In this chapter we approach the debate around Badiou’s renewal of philosophy by way of examining that which he separates out as non-philosophy. Under the categories of ‘sophistry’ and ‘antiphilosophy’, Badiou identifies thinkers who at the same time endanger the future of philosophy as they also teach it lessons that are vital for philosophy’s survival. Specifically, antiphilosophy provokes philosophy not just to deal with events that take place on its outside but to do so in a different, strictly philosophical manner. It is on this ground that we discuss whether Marx, an important ‘non-philosophical’ reference point throughout Badiou’s oeuvre, fits into the category of the antiphilosopher. But despite a brief antiphilosophical moment in Marx’s ‘1844 Introduction’, Marx’s commitment to conceive of philosophy as critique that enables political practice with a simultaneous disinterest in salvaging philosophical truth marks a rather different, by no means less provocative limit-point within Badiou’s thought.