Russell

Summary

What Dominique Pagani mainly takes from Russell is a saying he quotes regularly from 2015 to 2022: mathematics is a discourse in which one never knows what one is talking about, nor whether what one says is true1. He does not read it as a criticism. He sees it as a tribute that shows the strength of mathematics2 and praises its sovereignty3. He sometimes links it to the Principia Mathematica and brings it up in a range of contexts, including a session on Hölderlin, Mallarmé and Baudelaire4. In 2022 he presents it as a quip of which Russell would be only one possible author, which leaves the attribution open5. He also places Russell, together with Whitehead, as a founder of analytic philosophy and mathematical logic6. Finally, he mentions Russell's political commitment alongside Sartre, with whom he founded the tribunal on war crimes in Vietnam7.

1. 1#1.3 Between crisis and war: philosophising?14 Sept 2015 · 12:16
2. 2#2.8 Between crisis and war: philosophising?1 Aug 2017 · 22:34
3. 3#4.9 Angélique (by Nerval)14 Jun 2018 · 34:51
4. 4And what about the subject in all this? Hölderlin, Mallarmé and Baudelaire28 Sept 2022 · 1:33:03
5. 5The aporias of anthropology23 Nov 2022 · 12:51
6. 6#9.16 How can sciences of history be real?4 Mar 2021 · 38:13
7. 7#9 Romantic irony and the Vinteuil sonata15 Jan 2021 · 1:33:26

Summary produced automatically from 9 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.