Lawless Megan In his Manifesto for Philosophy, Alain Badiou suggests that there are certain conditions that must be present in order for philosophy to exist. He says that philosophy is discontinuous, not always existing within a society or in history. These conditions, Badiou states, are transversal and the procedures are easily evident. He gives a name to these procedures: "truth procedures." After talking somewhat generally about truth procedures, the author refers specifically to Greece. He says that what made Greece unique (why it saw the birth of philosophy) is its "interference" in things that were taken as fact at the time. People questioned the narratives concerning the origins of Greece, they discarded the words of the poets for those whose statements were more logical- "mathemes," presumably mathematicians. People began to dispute what had been taken as truth for so many years. Plato, one of the first philosophers, "prescribes the matheme as a condition for philosophy." Plato, however, completely dismisses the poets and accuses them of imitation. He believes that the poem is at fault and must be measured against "the narrative." The "matheme" is the first of four that the author identifies as necessary for philosophy: "the matheme, the poem, political invention and love." Having all of these things present automatically gives rise to philosophy, but without all of them at once there can never be philosophy. The author says that all truths come from these four "generic procedures" and there must be truths within each of them in order for there to be philosophy. Two problems are then introduced in the text, the first being a question concerning truth. Since truth is required in all four fields which can produce truth in order for there to be philosophy, how can philosophy produce truths? Truth is already present. Secondly, there is the question of unity plurality. and Philosophy is assumed to be "one," yet there exists a "plurality of conditions." The four conditions somehow combine into the one philosophy. The author continues with an extended definition of truth. He states that a truth is not a truth unless it is "new, rare, exceptional," but also "the most stable." In other words, a truth must come at a time unexpected and also something that is an impetus for change. It must have an effect on a specific situation; there must be an event that "supplements" the truth. Philosophy, then, proposes "a space in which naming takes place of events that serve as the point of departure for truth procedures." Badiou could be saying that philosophy identifies that which is significant to truth. It does not in itself create or define these truths, philosophy simply puts them in context. It tries to unite the four conditions, or generic procedures, in time and space. However, due to the disparity between the four truth-producing conditions, truths cannot be "totalized" or completely "aligned." Rather, philosophy creates within time and space a place, a "shelter," for truth procedures. Philosophy does not create, nor store, nor reflect truth, it simply creates a "liberty of movement" for truth. It does not even pronounce truth, it attempts to unite it. Philosophy is something that must maintain itself in the conditions which created and surround it. Philosophy comes about during times of crisis and uncertainty, knowing at once that it is in an environment that can shelter or destroy it. Philosophy also has the potential to make things worse. Philosophy "serves as a passage between the procedural actuality of truths and the open question of their temporal being." It leaves for the possibility of the continuation of certain truths with the knowledge that these truths may be fleeting.