The Immanence of Truths and the Absolutely Infinite in Spinoza, Cantor, and Badiou

Authors

  • Jana Ndiaye Berankova Columbia University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3986/fv.41.2.13

Keywords:

Badiou, Cantor, the absolute, The Immanence of Truths, large cardinals, Spinoza, Being and Event, philosophy and mathematics

Abstract

The following article compares the notion of the absolute in the work of Georg Cantor and in Alain Badiou’s third volume of Being and Event: The Immanence of Truths and proposes an interpretation of mathematical concepts used in the book. By describing the absolute as a universe or a place in line with the mathematical theory of large cardinals, Badiou avoided some of the paradoxes related to Cantor’s notion of the “absolutely infinite” or the set of all that is thinkable in mathematics W: namely the idea that W would be a potential infinity. The article provides an elucidation of the putative criticism of the statement “mathematics is ontology” which Badiou presented at the conference Thinking the Infinite in Prague. It emphasizes the role that philosophical decision plays in the construction of Badiou’s system of mathematical ontology and portrays the relationship between philosophy and mathematics on the basis of an inductive not deductive reasoning.

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References

Badiou, Alain, Being and Event, Continuum, New York 2006

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(10/1969), pp. 35–52.

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Published

2020-12-31

How to Cite

Ndiaye Berankova, J. (2020). The Immanence of Truths and the Absolutely Infinite in Spinoza, Cantor, and Badiou. Filozofski Vestnik, 41(2). https://doi.org/10.3986/fv.41.2.13

Issue

Vol. 41 No. 2 (2020): Thinking the Infinite Penser l’infini

Section

Large Cardinals and the Attributes of the Absolute

License

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