Why bother to praise mathematics when you claim, as Alain Badiou does, that philosophy is first and foremost a metaphysics of happiness, or else it’s not worth an hour of trouble? What possible relationship can there be between mathematics and happiness?
That is precisely the issue at stake in this dialogue, which serves as a very accessible introduction to what mathematics is and an exploration of the crucial influence it has always exerted on the greatest philosophers. Far from the thankless, pointless exercises they are often thought to be, mathematics and logic are indispensable guides to ridding ourselves of dominant opinions and making possible an access to truths, or to a human experience of the utmost value. That is why mathematics may well be the shortest path to the true life, which, when it exists, is characterized by an incomparable happiness.
Table of Content
Contents
I Mathematics Must be Saved
II Philosophy and Mathematics, or the Story of an Old Couple
III What is Mathematics About?
IV An Attempt at a Mathematics-based Metaphysics
V Does Mathematics Bring Happiness?
Conclusion
About the author
Alain Badiou is a writer, philosopher and an Emeritus Professor at the Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris.
Gilles Haeri is a graduate of the Ecole Centrale Paris and Director General of the French publishing house Editions Flammarion.
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