Dylan Wade

The Mathematical in Heidegger and Badiou: a Brief History of Subjectivity Dylan Wade

This work traces the historical development of subjectivity from its skeptical foundation in Descartes to Alain Badiou?s subject as fidelity to truth. Heidegger criticizes modernity, defined as the merging of the metaphysical and the mathematical, for apprehending the relationship between man and world in only one way, as things. I hope show that this development does not derive from the mathematical alone, but from the project of objects against an objective background secured in an I-pole, further advanced by Kant?s transcendental reflection of the thing-in-itself over this project. I do this by following Alain Badiou?s assessment of Zermelo-Fraenkel?s axiomatic set theory, a particular mathematical model that self-destructs, meaning it cannot become absolute or dogmatic. If we can dissociate in our ordinary language claims that utilize transcendental reasoning from claims concerning mathematical projection based on speculation alone, perhaps we might find some basis to make existential claims independent of perspective, or subjectivism.