Mathematical Counterpoint: A Short Essay on the Point

Abstract

Synopsis The dot is the simplest graphic symbol, and in the most diverse areas of human thought it signifies the original principle. At the point as a symbol lies the basis of antinomy in the corresponding areas; as the beginning of everything, the point is and is not. The dot represents emptiness, but also fullness. It is imagined on the border of being and non-being, either as a place of transition from what we consider reality in everyday life — to its negation, or, on the contrary, as a transition from otherworldly reality to nothingness here. In any case, the point connects two worlds: the world of the real and the world of the imagined; it is a place of transcendence.