Badiou and the Ontological Limits of Mathematics

Abstract

In the history of philosophy we can find various ways of philosophy relating to mathematics (Eleats, the Atomists, Plato, Descartes, Leibniz, etc.). In keeping with this tradition, Badiou constituted a new relationship between philosophy and mathematics. In Badiou’s words, “mathematics can tell us something about being as such, without knowing that this is the very meaning of mathematics.”2 This relationship formed a new position of philosophy regarding mathematics, which I will gradually elucidate.