8 ideas
| 9808 | Philosophy aims to reveal the grandeur of mathematics [Badiou] |
| Full Idea: Philosophy's role consists in informing mathematics of its own speculative grandeur. | |
| From: Alain Badiou (Mathematics and Philosophy: grand and little [2004], p.11) | |
| A reaction: Revealing the grandeur of something sounds more like a rhetorical than a rational exercise. How would you reveal the grandeur of a sunset to someone? |
| 9812 | In mathematics, if a problem can be formulated, it will eventually be solved [Badiou] |
| Full Idea: Only in mathematics can one unequivocally maintain that if thought can formulate a problem, it can and will solve it, regardless of how long it takes. | |
| From: Alain Badiou (Mathematics and Philosophy: grand and little [2004], p.17) | |
| A reaction: I hope this includes proving the Continuum Hypothesis, and Goldbach's Conjecture. It doesn't seem quite true, but it shows why philosophers of a rationalist persuasion are drawn to mathematics. |
| 9813 | Mathematics shows that thinking is not confined to the finite [Badiou] |
| Full Idea: Mathematics teaches us that there is no reason whatsoever to confne thinking within the ambit of finitude. | |
| From: Alain Badiou (Mathematics and Philosophy: grand and little [2004], p.19) | |
| A reaction: This would perhaps make Cantor the greatest thinker who ever lived. It is an exhilarating idea, but we should ward the reader against romping of into unrestrained philosophical thought about infinities. You may be jumping without your Cantorian parachute. |
| 9809 | Mathematics inscribes being as such [Badiou] |
| Full Idea: Mathematics inscribes being as such. | |
| From: Alain Badiou (Mathematics and Philosophy: grand and little [2004], p.12) | |
| A reaction: I don't pretend to understand that, but there is something about the purity and certainty of mathematics that makes us feel we are grappling with the core of existence. Perhaps. The same might be said of stubbing your toe on a bedpost. |
| 9811 | It is of the essence of being to appear [Badiou] |
| Full Idea: It is of the essence of being to appear. | |
| From: Alain Badiou (Mathematics and Philosophy: grand and little [2004], p.16) | |
| A reaction: Nice slogan. In my humble opinion 'continental' philosophy is well worth reading because, despite the fluffy rhetoric and the shameless egotism and the desire to shock the bourgeoisie, they occasionally make wonderfully thought-provoking remarks. |
| 9807 | In pursuing truth, anything less certain than mathematics is a waste of time [Descartes] |
| Full Idea: In our search for the direct road towards truth we should busy ourselves with no object about which we cannot attain a certitude equal to that of the demonstrations of Arithmetic and Geometry. | |
| From: René Descartes (Rules for the Direction of the Mind [1628], Rule II), quoted by Alain Badiou - Mathematics and Philosophy: grand and little p.8 | |
| A reaction: A beautiful statement of the way in which rationalist philosophy was founded on the model of mathematics (esp. Euclid), with all its concomitant problems. The most important concept of the last hundred years may well be fallibilist rationalism. |
| 18555 | The beautiful is that from which nothing can be subtracted and to which nothing can be added [Alberti] |
| Full Idea: The beautiful is that from which nothing can be taken away and to which nothing can be added but for the worse. | |
| From: Leon Battista Alberti (De Re Aedificatoria [1485]), quoted by Roger Scruton - Beauty: a very short introduction 9 | |
| A reaction: Scruton rejects this Platonic tradition of beauty as organic wholeness, because you can't say how it would be 'worse' without invoking beauty, which makes it circular. Scruton appears to be correct. |
| 9814 | All great poetry is engaged in rivalry with mathematics [Badiou] |
| Full Idea: Like every great poet, Mallarmé was engaged in a tacit rivalry with mathematics. | |
| From: Alain Badiou (Mathematics and Philosophy: grand and little [2004], p.20) | |
| A reaction: I love these French pronouncements! Would Mallarmé have agreed? If poetry and mathematics are the poles, where is philosophy to be found? |