In his seminar on Lacan, a "difficult companion," as he puts it - the third seminar in his cycle on antiphilosophy, in which he had previously focused on Nietzsche and Wittgenstein - Alain Badiou primarily concentrates on Lacan's later work and demonstrates how his thinking can be situated within an antiphilosophical tradition that includes Pascal, Rousseau, and Kierkegaard, as well as Nietzsche and Wittgenstein. "As will be seen, the controversy constantly mingles with a sense of astonished surprise at the master's inventions. One makes one's way as best as possible, sometimes through underbrush. But one discovers so many crucial formulas! Among all these verbal treasures, I will retain one formulation: the aim of the cure is to 'elevate powerlessness to the impossible.' This could - as the utmost paradox - well be the definition of a completely different practice that I have long sought, which Lacan had already found: philosophy.".