French philosopher and academic

Alain Badiou

Alain Badiou is a French philosopher, formerly chair of Philosophy at the École Normale Supérieure and founder of the faculty of Philosophy of the Université de Paris VIII with Gilles Deleuze, Michel Foucault and Jean-François Lyotard. Badiou's work is heavily informed by philosophical applications of mathematics, in particular set theory and category theory. Badiou's "Being and Event" project considers the concepts of being, truth, event and the subject defined by a rejection of linguistic relativism seen as typical of postwar French thought. Unlike his peers, Badiou believes in the idea of universalism and truth.

Born

1937

January 17

Died

Living

Era

1930s

Country

—

About

Alain, in brief

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Life timeline

Key dates

1937 Born

Also on January 17

What else happened on this day, through history

-38 Octavian divorces his wife Scribonia and marries Livia Drusilla, ending the fragile peace between the Second Triumvirate and Sextus Pompey.
1362 Saint Marcellus' flood kills at least 25,000 people on the shores of the North Sea.
1377 Pope Gregory XI reaches Rome, after deciding to move the Papacy back to Rome from Avignon.
1524 Giovanni da Verrazzano sets sail westward from Madeira to find a sea route to the Pacific Ocean.

See all of January 17 →

The world in 1937

When Alain arrived

april 1 Aden becomes a British crown colony.
april 1 The Royal New Zealand Air Force is formed as an independent service.
april 12 Sir Frank Whittle ground-tests the first jet engine designed to power an aircraft, at Rugby, England.
april 26 Spanish Civil War: Guernica, Spain, is bombed by the German Condor Legion and the Italian Aviazione Legionaria.

Read the year 1937 →

Same-day contemporaries

Also born on January 17

Calvin Harris 1984– Scottish singer-songwriter, DJ, and producer Clyde Walcott 1926–2006 Barbadian cricketer and coach (born 1926) Davíð Oddsson 1948– Icelandic politician, 21st Prime Minister of Iceland (died 2026) Denis O'Hare 1962– American actor and singer Derrick Mason 1974– American football player Dwyane Wade 1982– American basketball player Gyude Bryant 1949–2014 Liberian businessman and politician (born 1949) Kang Chan-hee 2000– South Korean singer and actor Naveen Andrews 1969– English actor

See everything on January 17 →

Same-year contemporaries

Also born in 1937

Abner Haynes 1937–2024 American football player (born 1937) Alice Coltrane 1937–2007 American pianist and composer (died 2007) Barry Switzer 1937– American football player and coach Bill Cosby 1937– American actor, comedian, producer, and screenwriter Billy Meier 1937– Swiss author and photographer Birju Maharaj 1937–2022 Indian dancer, composer, singer and exponent of the Lucknow "Kalka-Bindadin" Gharana of Kathak dance (died 2022) Bobby Charlton 1937–2023 English footballer and manager (died 2023) Carlos Lamarca 1937–1971 Brazilian captain (died 1971) Colin Powell 1937–2021 American general and politician, 65th United States Secretary of State (died 2021)

Read about the year 1937 →

Keep going

More to explore

Alain's birthday January 17 Alain's zodiac Capricorn When Alain arrived 1937