Sam Gillespie (9 January 1970 â 8 August 2003) was a philosopher with a particular interest in the work of Alain Badiou, a French philosopher, formerly chair of Philosophy at the ÃÂcole Normale Supérieure (ENS) who wrote about being, truth and the subject in a way that, he claims, is neither postmodern nor simply a repetition of modernity. Gillespie was described by Joan Copjec as "one of the most gifted and promising philosophers of his generation".
He was a co-founder of the academic journal Umbr(a). Gillespie's book The Mathematics of Novelty was published posthumously in 2008. Peter Hallward wrote that "This tremendously valuable book is a landmark in the critical reception of BadiouâÂÂs work."
After his death by suicide at age 33, The Mathematics of Novelty was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Warwick, which Gillespie was posthumously awarded in 2005. Into the first decade of the 21st century, it is now recognized that Gillespie's writings and translations were crucial to the initial reception of Alain Badiou's work in the English-speaking world.
Selected bibliography
Books
- The Mathematics of Novelty: Badiou's Minimalist Metaphysics (Melbourne: re.press, 2008). For access to the complete version of this title in pdf format, visit the re.press website.
Journal publications
- âÂÂSlavoj Your Symptom!âÂÂ, UMBR(a), no. 1, 1995, pp. 115âÂÂ9.
- âÂÂSubtractiveâÂÂ, UMBR(a), no. 1, 1996, pp. 7âÂÂ10, (available from CSeARCH).
- âÂÂHegel Unsutured (an Addendum to Badiou)âÂÂ, UMBR(a), no. 1, 1996, pp. 57âÂÂ69 (available from CSeARCH).
- âÂÂBadiouâÂÂs Ethics: A ReviewâÂÂ, Pli: The Warwick Journal of Philosophy, no. 12, 2001, pp. 256âÂÂ65.
- âÂÂNeighborhood of Infinity: On BadiouâÂÂs Deleuze: The Clamor of BeingâÂÂ, UMBR(a), no. 1, 2001, pp. 91âÂÂ106 (available from CSeARCH).
- âÂÂPlacing the Void â Badiou on SpinozaâÂÂ, Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities, vol. 6, no. 3, 2001, pp. 63âÂÂ77.
- âÂÂBeyond Being: BadiouâÂÂs Doctrine of TruthâÂÂ, Communication and Cognition, vol. 36, no. 1-2, 2003, pp. 5âÂÂ30 (available from CSeARCH).
- âÂÂGet Your Lack OnâÂÂ, UMBR(a), no. 1, 2004, pp. 9âÂÂ19.
- 'Giving Form to Its Own Existence: Anxiety and the Subject of Truth', 1: The Praxis of Alain Badiou, 2006, pp. 161âÂÂ18 (reprinted in The Praxis of Alain Badiou, ed. Paul Ashton, A.J. Bartlett and Justin Clemens (Melbourne: re.press, 2006, https://web.archive.org/web/20110411133810/http://www.re-press.org/content/view/21/38/)
Translations
- Badiou, Alain, "Hegel", trans. Marcus Coelen and Sam Gillespie, UMBR(a), no. 1, 1996, pp. 27âÂÂ35.
- Badiou, Alain, "On a Contemporary Usage of Frege", trans. Justin Clemens and Sam Gillespie, UMBR(a), no. 1, 2000, pp. 99âÂÂ115.
References
External links