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What is the relationship between mathematics and philosophy? How does the project of "mathematical ontology" redefine the link between multiplicities and being? M=O? brings together leading scholars exploring and questioning Alain Badiou's thesis that "mathematics is ontology" and its evolution.
In Being and Event (1988), Alain Badiou proposed the thesis that mathematics is ontology, here
playfully abbreviated as M=O. However, at the 2018 "Thinking the Infinite" conference in Prague, he surprised many of his audience by seemingly retracting the M=O thesis by calling it a mere "imprecise political slogan." This book addresses the "Prague ontology scandal" by adding a question mark to the abbreviation. How did Badiou's exploration of the philosophical implications of modern and contemporary mathematics
evolve as he moved from set theory to category theory and finally to large cardinals? Is the thesis M=O still valid? This soft-bound volume, published in a beautiful embossed futuristic silver edition featuring mathematics-inspired illustrations, brings together leading scholars to explore
Badiou's theoretical legacy and to offer fresh insights into the current state of the project of mathematical ontology, its potential, and its unresolved obstacles.
Tzuchien Tho is a philosopher and historian of mathematics and physics. He is working on questions about causality in eighteenth-century physics, focusing on the development of analytical mechanics. He is also currently working on issues related to mathematical ontology, the philosophy of algebra, Leibniz's reception in the twentieth century, and epistemological methods of history. He teaches at the University of Bristol.
Alain Badiou (born 1937 in Rabat) is a French philosopher and playwright. He is a professor emeritus and former chair of the Department of Philosophy of the École Normale Supérieure in Paris and one of the founding members of the Faculty of Philosophy of the Université Paris VIII. His major works include Being and Event (1988), Logics of Worlds (2006) and The Immanence of Truths (2018). His philosophical oeuvre connects continental and analytical philosophical traditions along with his reflections on set theory and contemporary mathematics.
Edited by Tzuchien Tho.
Contributions by Alain Badiou, Justin Clemens, Norman Madarasz, Ivan Marin, Eloïse Mignon, François Nicolas, David Rabouin, Julian Rohrhuber, Vladimir Tasić, Tzuchien Tho, Becky Vartabedian, Andrés Villaveces Niño, Fernando Zalamea, Mirna Džamonja, Jana Ndiaye Berankova.
