Twenty years ago, Alain Badiou's first Manifesto for Philosophy
rose up against the all-pervasive proclamation of the "end" of
philosophy. In lieu of this problematic of the end, he put forward
the watchword: "one more step".

The situation has considerably changed since then. Philosophy
was threatened with obliteration at the time, whereas today it
finds itself under threat for the diametrically opposed reason: it
is endowed with an excessive, artificial existence. "Philosophy" is
everywhere. It serves as a trademark for various media pundits. It
livens up cafés and health clubs. It has its magazines and its
gurus. It is universally called upon, by everything from banks to
major state commissions, to pronounce on ethics, law and duty. In
essence, "philosophy" has now come to stand for nothing other than
its most ancient enemy: conservative ethics.

Badiou's second manifesto therefore seeks to demoralize
philosophy and to separate it from all those "philosophies" that
are as servile as they are ubiquitous. It demonstrates the power of
certain eternal truths to illuminate action and, as such, to
transport philosophy far beyond the figure of "the human" and its
"rights". There, well beyond all moralism, in the clear expanse of
the idea, life becomes something radically other than survival.