Sylvain Lazarus
Encyclopedia
Sylvain Lazarus is a French sociologist, anthropologist and political theorist. He has also written under the pseudonym Paul Sandevince. Lazarus is a Professor at the Paris 8 University.
ian friends Alain Badiou
(Being and Event, 1988) and Jean-Claude Milner
(The Indistinct Names, 1983) worked out, respectively, in the fields of philosophy, of linguistics and of psychoanalytic theory.
Lazarus's 1996 book 'Anthropologie du nom' (The Anthropology of the Name) has not yet been translated into English. It was discussed at length by Alain Badiou in his Abrégé de Métapolitique (1998), now translated into English as Metapolitics
(2005).
, Sylvain Lazarus, myself and a fair numher of young people". Fifteen year's later, Lazarus was a founding member (along with Badiou and Michel) of the militant French
political organisation "L'Organisation Politique" which called itself a post-party organization concerned with direct popular intervention in a wide range of issues (including immigration, labor, and housing). In addition to numerous writings and interventions since the 1980s, L'Organisation Politique has stressed the importance of developing political prescriptions concerning undocumented migrants (in France referred to as les sans papiers) and stresses that they must be conceived primarily as workers and not immigrants.
Life and work
Sylvain Lazarus worked out a theory of the social function of political categorizations (cf. The Anthropology of the Name, 1996), exploring in the anthropological field what his LacanLacan
Lacan is surname of:* Jacques Lacan , French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist** The Seminars of Jacques Lacan** From Bakunin to Lacan: Anti-Authoritarianism and the Dislocation of Power, a book on political philosophy by Saul Newman** Lacan at the Scene* Judith Miller, née Lacan...
ian friends Alain Badiou
Alain Badiou
Alain Badiou is a French philosopher, professor at European Graduate School, formerly chair of Philosophy at the École Normale Supérieure . Along with Giorgio Agamben and Slavoj Žižek, Badiou is a prominent figure in an anti-postmodern strand of continental philosophy...
(Being and Event, 1988) and Jean-Claude Milner
Jean-Claude Milner
Jean-Claude Milner is a linguist, philosopher and a French essayist. In particular, he is a specialist in the field of both linguistics and psychoanalysis...
(The Indistinct Names, 1983) worked out, respectively, in the fields of philosophy, of linguistics and of psychoanalytic theory.
Lazarus's 1996 book 'Anthropologie du nom' (The Anthropology of the Name) has not yet been translated into English. It was discussed at length by Alain Badiou in his Abrégé de Métapolitique (1998), now translated into English as Metapolitics
Metapolitics
Metapolitics is metalinguistic talk about the analytic, synthetic, and normative language of political inquiry and politics itself. Put simply, it is dialogue about the way we talk about politics. If one studies, analyzes, and describes a language, the language used for studying, analyzing, and...
(2005).
L'Organisation Politique
Following the student uprisings of May 1968 in France, Lazarus was a founding member of the Union des communistes de France marxiste-léniniste (UCFml). To quote Badiou himself, the UCFml is "the Maoist organization established in late 1969 by Natacha MichelNatacha Michel
Natacha Michel is a French political activist, militant and writer, born in 1941. She has published a dozen novels and a growing body of literary criticism.Michel was program director at the College International de Philosophie...
, Sylvain Lazarus, myself and a fair numher of young people". Fifteen year's later, Lazarus was a founding member (along with Badiou and Michel) of the militant French
Politics of France
France is a semi-presidential representative democratic republic, in which the President of France is head of state and the Prime Minister of France is the head of government, and there is a pluriform, multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is...
political organisation "L'Organisation Politique" which called itself a post-party organization concerned with direct popular intervention in a wide range of issues (including immigration, labor, and housing). In addition to numerous writings and interventions since the 1980s, L'Organisation Politique has stressed the importance of developing political prescriptions concerning undocumented migrants (in France referred to as les sans papiers) and stresses that they must be conceived primarily as workers and not immigrants.
Using the pseudonym Paul Sandevince
- all articles in French:
- articles dans le journal maoïste de l'UCFML.
- Qu'est-ce qu'une Politique Marxiste Éditions Potemkine – janvier 1978
- Notes de travail sur le post-léninisme Éditions Potemkine – 1981.
Further reading
- Alain Badiou:
- MetapoliticsMetapoliticsMetapolitics is metalinguistic talk about the analytic, synthetic, and normative language of political inquiry and politics itself. Put simply, it is dialogue about the way we talk about politics. If one studies, analyzes, and describes a language, the language used for studying, analyzing, and...
, 2005 - Logics of Worlds: 'Being and Event', Volume 2, 2009. Here, Badiou discusses the ongoing importance for him of Lazarus's work and political interventions. See in particular the extensive endnotes in the back section of this volume. The index points to other references to Lazarus in this volume.
- Metapolitics
- Michael NeocosmosMichael NeocosmosMichael Neocosmos, is an author, translator and Professor and Director of Global Movements Research at Monash University, in Johannesburg South Africa. He is also a fellow at the Centre for Humanities Research at the University of the Western Cape....
, The Political Conditions of Social Thought and the Politics of Emancipation: An Introduction to the work of Sylvain Lazarus, 2009