democratic materialism

is the wrongheaded notion that nothing exists but bodies and language. It is misguided because "truth" is also something that exists.

Badiou presents his philosophical project as a polemics with what he calls 'democratic materialism', namely the conviction that there are only bodies and language (Badiou 2006b). Badiou's self-styled 'materialist dialectics' undermines this by adding the conviction that 'there are truths'. The third element, truth, is part of a philosophical triad that condenses the thought of novelty in Badiou's philosophy: event, truth and the subject. None of these elements is given, they are the result of a process that brings about change and breaks with the status quo.'

democratic materialism, n.Definitions

democratic materialism