Acknowledgements
Note on the Text/Translation

Translator's Introduction: Happiness is Revolting by A.J. Bartlett and Justin Clemens

Introduction: The Metaphysics of Real Happiness
I: Philosophy and the Desire of Philosophy
II: Philosophy and Antiphilosophy put to the test of happiness
III: To be happy, must we change the world?
IV: Destination and Affects of Philosophy
Conclusion
Index

Alain Badiou taught at the École Normale Supérieure and at the Collège International de Philosophie in Paris, France. His most recent book The Immanence of Truths: Being and Event III is coming out in 2020 with Bloomsbury.

'All philosophy is a metaphysics of happiness.or it's not worth an hour of trouble' claims Alain Badiou in this lively intervention into one of the most persistent themes in philosophy: what is happiness? And what do I need to do to be happy? The desire to be happy is one of our most universal goals and yet there doesn't seem to be any easy answers or formulas for achieving happiness. And the concept has become so commodified and corrupted to be almost unrecognizable as something worth pursuing. In light of this, should we just give up the aspiration to be happy altogether? Alain Badiou thinks not.
While eschewing futile procedures for magically becoming 'happy', Badiou does passionately maintain that in order to be truly happy we need philosophy. And, bolder still, that a life lived philosophically is the happiest life of all!