Alain Badiou and the Ontology of the Chicxulub Impact Event

Abstract

Drawing on Alain Badiou’s Being and Event, this article develops a philosophical analysis of the Chicxulub Impact Event and the subsequent Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) mass extinction. Traditional scientific interpretations of these events tend to focus on ideas of natural selection, arguing that the asteroid strike was merely an accelerant for the inevitable decline of the non-avian dinosaurs. More contemporary interpretations seek the deeper causes of the asteroid strike itself, tracing its cosmic origins to the Oort Cloud, the collection of planetesimals that resides at the periphery of the Solar System. This article argues that Badiou’s philosophical representation of situations, multiples, and events elucidates the ontological implications of each of these interpretations. In particular, reading the traditional interpretation in relation to Being and Event highlights its anthropocentric implications, whereas a Badiouan reading of the more contemporary interpretation emphasizes not only humanity’s but also the earth’s nondescript status within the Solar System. In developing this analysis, the article reworks Badiou’s assumption that events (as he understands them) do not occur in the natural world. I argue that, in actuality, the Chicxulub Impact Event captures, in retrospect, Badiou’s understanding of an event as the sudden presentation of that which is unrepresented in a situation.

Keywords

• alain badiou
• multiples
• situations
• events
• chicxulub impact event
• cretaceouspaleogene (k-pg) mass extinction