Number and Numbers
Number and Numbers by Alain Badiou, published by Polity on May 19, 2008, is a thought-provoking exploration of the philosophical implications of numbers in our contemporary world. This 240-page work delves into how the political regime of global capitalism reduces complex realities to mere numerical representations, questioning our understanding of what numbers truly signify. Badiou presents a nuanced account of the attempts made over the last century to define the unique status of number, arguing that it transcends its various calculative uses and the confines of number theory.
Readers will find that Badiou draws upon the mathematical theory of surreal numbers to develop a unified theory of Number as a distinct form of being. He posits that a deeper understanding of Number can reveal significant philosophical truths about our existence and the structures of the world we inhabit. By rigorously engaging with the concept of Number, Badiou suggests that philosophy can offer insights that challenge the pervasive numerical relations of capitalism, ultimately pointing toward the possibility of events that cannot be quantified. This edition invites readers to reconsider the role of numbers in both philosophy and society.
Official synopsis Publisher
The political regime of global capitalism reduces the world to an endless network of numbers within numbers, but how many of us really understand what numbers are? Without such an understanding, how can we challenge the regime of number?
In Number and Numbers Alain Badiou offers an philosophically penetrating account with a powerful political subtext of the attempts that have been made over the last century to define the special status of number. Badiou argues that number cannot be defined by the multiform calculative uses to which numbers are put, nor is it exhausted by the various species described by number theory. Drawing on the mathematical theory of surreal numbers, he develops a unified theory of Number as a particular form of being, an infinite expanse to which our access remains limited. This understanding of Number as being harbours important philosophical truths about the structure of the world in which we live.
In Badiou’s view, only by rigorously thinking through Number can philosophy offer us some hope of breaking through the dense and apparently impenetrable capitalist fabric of numerical relations. For this will finally allow us to point to that which cannot be numbered: the possibility of an event that would deliver us from our unthinking subordination of number.
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