Beyond Formalization: An interview with Alain Badiou. Conduted by Peter Hallward & Bruno Bosteels, Paris, 2 July 2002

Peter Hallward: We’d like to start with some questions about the book you’ve just finished on the twentieth century, then talk about your current lecture series on aspects of the present historical moment, before finishing with a few points relating to your major work in progress, Logiques des mondes [forthcoming]. Starting then with The Century what is your basic thesis in this book? In particular, can you explain the relationship between the “passion for the real” [passion du réel] you describe as characteristic of the truly inventive or innovative sequences of the last century, and the various programmes of radical formalisation that this passion inspired?