They say too many books are written. I'm not so sure. So long as a book is read by someone at some time. Even if it is not read, like a redemptive private diary which never goes beyond a locked drawer, the process of writing can be enough. I am sure that some books need to be written. … This book was necessary. It is the first book on the encounters, disputes, agreements and commentaries bringing Jean-François Lyotard and Alain Badiou together. … A thorough and accurate resource.

James Williams, Deakin University, USA, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

This book traces the argumentative dispute between Alain Badiou and Jean-Francois Lyotard, two of the most radical and influential thinkers of recent times. In its remarkable staging of this dispute it is both a model of scholarly exegesis and a challenging engagement with the fate of philosophy today. In this sense, it is a fitting tribute to the profound and provocative thought of both philosophers. I recommend it to those interested in the work of either Badiou or Lyotard, and to anyone who cares about the challenge of philosophy to our contemporary complacencies.

Keith Crome, Senior Lecturer, Department of History, Politics and Philosophy, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK

The 'philosopher' vs. the 'sophist' -- the Badiou vs. Lyotard dispute -- is the fight over the meaning of philosophy and so the struggle for its existence. McLennan lucidly explicates the crucial arguments between these two thinkers, in view of the ultimate question: whose thinking is better suited to sustain the philosophical desire, philosophy as resistance? Positioned by anti-philosophy, the answer McLennan proposes is true, post-correlationist elegance.

Michael J Kelly, Visiting Professor, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

This work is to be commended for its insistence on a certain “philosophical militancy.” It ranges over questions of being, ethics, politics, and the very status of philosophy itself in the works of two important contemporary thinkers, neither of whom have always been read in strictly philosophical terms. In taking on a critical interchange that until now has been little known to English readers, it starts thinking down an as yet largely untrodden path: this book offers the first strident steps.

Peter W. Milne, Assistant Professor, Department of Aesthetics, Seoul National University, South Korea