The Chinese Revolution in El Siglo of Alain Badiou

Abstract

In his book The Century, Alain Badiou proposes to reflect on the subjective operations in which the Twentieth Century was constituted. The author identifies the “passion of the real” as a key concept through which we can access the meaning of the extreme experiences that animated theTwentieth Century. Badiou examines the different political, aesthetic and scientific operations that sought the constitution of the so-called “new Man” in the Twentieth Century. In this article we focus on Badiou's reflections on the Chinese Revolution, on Mao Zedong's theses regarding war and contradictions. Reflections aimed at substantiating the French philosopher's commitment to a subtractive dialectic in political thought inherited from the 21st Century.