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What do mathematicians teach us about the World? An anthropological perspective

in Dialectical Anthropology 24, 1: 45-98, 1999

« Aristotle was a thorough-paced scientific man such as we see nowadays, except for this, that he ranged over all knowledge. As a man of scientific instinct, he classed metaphysics, in which I doubt not he included logic, as a matter of course, among the sciences, - sciences in our sense, I mean, what he called theoretical sciences, - along with Mathematics and Natural Science, - natural science embracing what we call the Physical Sciences and the Psychical Sciences, generally. This theoretical science was for him one thing, animated by one spirit and having knowledge of theory as its ultimate end and aim » (Peirce 1992 [1898] : 107)

I did not train as a mathematician, I trained as a Social Scientist. I had chosen however Mathematics as my main subject when at the « Athénée », the equivalent of High School in Belgium, the country where I was born and where I was raised up to graduate level. At the Free University of Brussels, I learnt mathematics for economics as part of the curriculum for sociology undergraduates. As a Graduate student I had the privilege of being one of Georges Théophile Guilbaud's students at his seminar called « Mathematics for Social Scientists » hosted by the Ecole des Haut

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Intelligence and Race: the House of Cards

Jorion, Paul J. M. (1999) Intelligence and Race: the House of Cards, Psycoloquy: 10,#64 Intelligence G Factor (12)

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L'invention de la réalité objective

Paul Jorion
paul_jorion@msn.com

"... une naïveté qui confond le simple reflet du monde, les faits et les chiffres, avec son principe." T.W. Adorno, Trois études sur Hegel.

"... il est clair que notre physique n'est qu'une fabrication mentale, dont le symbole mathématique est l'instrument." J. Lacan, Discours de Rome.

"Le petit jeu symbolique à quoi se résument le système de Newton et celui d'Einstein a finalement fort peu de choses à voir avec le réel. Cette science qui réduit le réel à quelques petites lettre s, à un petit paquet de formules, apparaîtra sans doute avec le recul des âges comme une étonnante épopée, et aussi s'amincira peut-être comme une épopée au circuit un peu court." J. Lacan, Séminaire II, 1954-1955.

Je vais définir ici la sciencecomme ce discours dont l'objectif est la description exhaustive, dynamique comme statique, de la Réalité-objective. Les termes de cette description sont mixtes: partiellement discursifs, partiellement mathématiques. Dans sa partie discursive, la science se donne comme garantie de sa rigueur sa réf&eacu

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What do mathematicians teach us about the World? An anthropological perspective

in Dialectical Anthropology 24, 1: 45-98, 1999

L'invention de la réalité objective

Paul Jorion paul_jorion@msn.com

Paul Jorion
paul_jorion@msn.com