To want nothing : a Badiouian reading of Radical Orthodoxy

Abstract

This thesis argues that Alain Badiou presents a challenge to Radically Orthodox thinkers by claiming that theological discourse on being can only articulate a description of a structured presentation of an inconsistent multiplicity; a situation referred to throughout the thesis as “a Badiouian thinking of the One.” The argument begins by explaining how in the contemporary context Badiou identifies two forms of thinking the One: positivism and theology. It follows that if positivism and theology are two forms of the same thinking then there must be common elements or logics at work in their separate discourses. Three elements shared by both discourses are shown to be at work in both a positivist project—Daniel Dennett’s philosophy of consciousness—and a theological project—Radical Orthodoxy. Ultimately, in establishing how the three elements are common to both discourses Radical Orthodoxy is identified as an example of a Badiouian thinking of the One.