Difference between revisions of "Matheme"

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=====Background=====
 
=====Background=====
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The "[[matheme]]" is a neologism introduced in the [[{{LB}}|work]] of [[Jacques Lacan]].
  
The [[matheme]] is a concept introduced in the [[{{LB}}|work]] of [[Jacques Lacan]].
 
  
The term "[[matheme]]" is a neologism coined by [[Jacques Lacan]] in the early 1970s.
 
  
Formed by derivation from "[[mathematics]]" and by analogy with [[phoneme]] and [[Lévi-Strauss]]'s [[mytheme]],<ref>''Mytheme'' is a term coined by [[Claude Lévi-Strauss]] to denote the basic constituents of mythological systems.</ref> the term is an equivalent to "[[algebra|mathematical sign]]".  It is not used in conventional [[mathematics]], but is part of [[Lacan]]'s [[algebra]].
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
They are formulae designed as symbolic representations of his ideas and analyses.
 
 
They were intended to introduce some degree of scientific rigour in [[philosophy|philosophical]] and [[psychology|psychological]] [[{{LB}}|writing]], replacing the often hard to understand verbal descriptions with formulae resembling those used in the [[science|hard sciences]], and as an easy way to hold, [[memory|remember]] and rehearse some of the core ideas of both [[Freud]] and [[Lacan]].
 
 
For example: $ <> a is the [[matheme]] for [[fantasy]] for [[Lacan]].
 
 
"Matheme", for Lacan, was not simply the imitation of science by philosophy, but the ideal of a perfect means for the integral transmission of knowledge.
 
 
Natural language, with its constant "metonymic slide", fails here, where mathematics succeeds.
 
 
Though sometimes disparaged as a case of "physics envy" or accused of introducing false rigor into a discpline that is more literary theory than hard science, there is also something of a sense of humor in Lacan's mathemes.
 
  
  

Revision as of 20:15, 10 September 2006

French: mathème
Background

The "matheme" is a neologism introduced in the work of Jacques Lacan.








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