from socrates onward the function of philosophy is to corrupt youth text by SLAVOJ ŽIŽEK portrait by MARK SELIGER The best starting point to outline what I try to achieve in my work is provided by Alain Badiou, who opens his The True Life with the provocative claim that, from Socrates onward, the function of philosophy is to corrupt youth, to alienate (or, rather, “extraneate” in the sense of Brecht’s verfremden) them from the predominant ideologico-political order, to sow radical doubts and enable them to think autonomously. No wonder that Socrates, the “first philosopher,” was also its first victim, ordered by the democratic court of Athens to drink poison. And is this prodding not another name for evil — evil in the sense of disturbing the established way of life? All philosophers prodded: Plato submitted ancient costumes and myths to ruthless rational examination, Descartes undermined the medieval harmonious universe, Spinoza…