A Historical Materialism Critique On Badiou’s "Idea Of Communism"

Under the dual influence of neoliberalism and postmodernism,French philosopher Alain Badiou,with his unique way of thinking,reexamined European political phenomena and reexamined the essence and connotation of communism from a new perspective.Since then,the road to a new political order has officially opened.Badiou became the founder of "mathematics is ontology" in history,based on the ontology of trinity of event,truth,and subject,and took the lead in proposing the " idea of communism " and innovating political terminology.In this ontological foundation,the rupture of the situation makes events manifest in the form of "non existence",thereby forming a truth process of generic extension,promoting the realization of one’s own infinity by any individual in the political situation.The " idea of communism " advocated by Badiou vividly represents his thoughts and cognition.He said that communism is actually a conceptual term that is condensed from representative factors such as subjectivity,politics,and history.The idea is realized in the process of truth exploration,historical attribution,and personal subjectivity.During the low tide of the European revolution,it was Badiou who took the lead in reigniting the torch of communism,actively guiding people to follow the truth,seeking practical ways and theoretical sources to achieve the true liberation of humanity,innovating thinking,and rethinking the true meaning of communism from a new perspective and positioning.However,due to his separation of the relationship between historical materialism and communism,there are limitations and fantasies to a certain extent.From the perspective of mathematical ontology,he used the "event" of "one" to explain the "truth" of "many" in communism,proposed the infinite possibility of truth that individual subjects cannot fully carry,and tried to find the subjective existence of " the idea of communism.".Reviewing Badiou’s thought from the perspective of historical materialism,first of all,based on Marx’s realistic individual,criticized Badiou’s "monadic" individual survival and the "eternal truth" of what he called "equality".Badiou believes that the country is "one" and the " idea of communism " is "one".In his ideological cognition,the country is a whole of "one",and the individuals therein are "atoms" in the "subset" of "one".In this way,he uses his own thinking to equally complete the analysis of the individual level in the mathematical sense.Badiou’s view of equality is abstract and unrealistic.Marx has already pointed out that the foundation of human history is formed by the mutual construction of realistic individuals,their activities,and the various elements they possess,as well as the material living conditions they create.Therefore,it is not possible to start from abstract theories,but rather to consider individual equality from the perspective of the actual social relationships of individuals.Secondly,Badiou uses the certainty of the subject’s current knowledge to prove that truth is truth,which is still trapped in the internality of the subject’s consciousness.His cognition of the formation of truth has a certain self validating logic,and in fact,it is a deep analysis and interpretation of Hegel’s "perceptual certainty" and "self consciousness".That is,starting from this understanding,it is the understanding that consciousness consciously abandons objectiveness and "returns to self.".Marx has pointed out that we need to go out of the realm of speculative truth and prove the truth of our thinking in practice.Marx paid attention to the truth of reality,the power of reality,and advocated transforming the world with the power of reality.Finally,Badiou believes that any existing class cannot become a subjective existence that undertakes communism.In Badiou’s view,the subject that promotes the occurrence of communism is not a definable existence,but is constantly changing and can be constantly constructed.However,the subject he describes clearly has the "self consciousness" characteristics of Hegel,and Hegel uses the "externalized" "self consciousness" to define the external world,Marx proposed a criticism that if the subject cannot be regarded as the real person itself,but only represents the abstraction of human beings,that is,human self-consciousness,then this "externalization" is equivalent to "externalized self-consciousness." Marx positioned the truth of communism in rebuilding society,that is,establishing a union of free people,and attributed it to the inevitable development of reality and the natural unity of proletarian subjects.Through the historical materialism criticism of Badiou’s " idea of communism ",a better understanding of Marx’s communist theory and future social ideals provides an important theoretical resource for realizing the true liberation of human beings in today’s rapid development of economic globalization,which is not only a strong defense of Marx’s communist ideology,but also a strong support for strengthening the belief in communism in the new era.