A New Hope for the Symbolic, for the Subject
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3986/fv.41.2.14Keywords:
ontology, metaontology, symbolization, subjectivity, disorientation, mathematical infinity, set theory, Platonism, pluralism, large cardinal theory, inner model, ultimate-L, universality theorem, supercompact cardinalAbstract
This paper is perhaps an impressionistic response to accounts of the extraordinary set-theoretical activity being undertaken by W. Hugh Woodin (mathematician) and colleagues in the present moment, in the context of the mathematical ontology proposed and elaborated by Alain Badiou (philosopher). The argument presented is that the prevailing and sustained incoherence of the mathematical ontology (i.e. set theory) underscores a contemporary deficit of humanity’s symbolic organization which, in turn, yields confusion and conflict in terms of subjective orientation. But a new axiom (conjectured as yet) promises to realize a coherent set theory, i.e. stable, consistent and complete. This remarkable (and completely unexpected) development offers hope for the pursuit of a modern (i.e. non-hierarchical) symbolic, and a consequent resolution of the general subjective disorientation.
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