Transgression and the Inexistent by Belhaj Kacem Mehdi

Author:Belhaj Kacem, Mehdi
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: A Philosophical Vocabulary
Publisher: Bloomsbury UK
Published: 2017-07-14T16:00:00+00:00

Mathematics

Mathematics: For a modern, the transcendental is confused with ontology itself, i.e. as Kant would translate from its Latin definition, the “science of the most universal properties of all things.” It is with what François Regnault called his “stroke of genius”, i.e. the equation mathematics=ontology, that Badiou (and a few others, constituting what is typically called a “philosophical generation”) hit me for such a long time on the head. We had to admit in fact that this simple but devastating equation constituted the mightiest answer of the history of metaphysics to the ontological question. In fact, since science is the art of appropriation of the “eternal” Laws of Nature, i.e. of the being-necessary of everything, what discipline of thought could lay claim to the rank of ontology more than mathematics? All in all, Badiou’s “discovery” is so powerful that it appears, after a (long, very long…) digesting period, somewhat trivial. We ask ourselves why metaphysics did not think of it before, and for such a long time sought “ontology” in other places than where it was obviously to be found. Mathematics is the science of “the most universal properties of all things” in such an obvious manner that everything should have been said on that point. And yet, it would seem that Badiou alone discovered it.

However, even this point is not so self-assured, if we decide to take a more serious look at it. I will give the irrefutable proofs in one of my two as yet unpublished, “posthumous” books, but even the equation mathematics=ontology eventually seemed to me not only suspect, but finally null and void—which is by no means a simple “anti-Badiou” polemic, but a real conclusion which, on the pretext of the latter, constitutes a perspective turning point embracing the entire history of metaphysics and its false paths. I explained above why, at the end of the day, and in agreement with the rest of the tradition on this point alone, I confirmed the superiority of the logical paradigm over the mathematical (see Logic). Here I will argue, with more specific examples, why I think the equation of mathematics with ontology is nothing more than deceptive: like the previous chapter’s conclusion, this too will show how the heavily interested position of “anti-humanism” openly falls into its own trap. The demonstration will illustrate, en abîme, the concept of irony (see above), by laying bare the semblance of semblance of the naked king, which is the match without remainder (see Ontological Differend) between being and mathematical thought, just as the police prefect had to wait for Dupin to steal the stolen letter of the Minister. Even more en abîme, it is pure analytical logic, again in the sense theorized by Dupin, that dismantles the metaphysical postulate of an “inhumanist” equivalence of ontology and mathematics.

And if Logic alone is a legitimate transcendental, i.e. the empty ontology of all possible link between the beings [étants], without taking account of any singular properties, but mathematics is delegitimized with respect to the claim

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