In his review of Terry Eagleton's Trouble with Strangers: A Study of Ethics (4 December), Fred Inglis alludes to "batty old Louis Althusser" and "the decidedly modish as well as crazily repellant Alain Badiou". It is astonishing to see a review of a book about ethics refer in such a disparaging manner to two such distinguished French intellectuals.
Is this Anglocentrism? Or "Inglisentrism"? It sure as hell ain't ethics. The fact that Althusser was born in Algeria and Badiou in Morocco raises questions about the trouble with strangers that Inglis is clearly incapable of addressing.
Willy Maley, University of Glasgow.