Being spoken in the Cervantine manner: from Henri Poincaré to Paul Auster

Abstract

One of the most difficult questions facing epistemology concerns the surprising coincidences that occur between mathematical theories and the real world, which, at least at first glance, belong to very different realms. From Thales to Plato, or from Descartes to Hegel, philosophy has been concerned with constructing a discourse that accounts for these correspondences between mathematics and the world, sometimes delicately harmonious —Galileo formulated the most beautiful of definitions when he wrote that the world is written in mathematical characters— and at other times abruptly disharmonious—Chaitin, following Gödel, formulates a disturbing definition: whether chance is hidden within mathematics. It seems that the philosopher is compelled to construct an ontology that accounts for these relationships, whether wondrously harmonious or repugnantly disharmonious (one might use opposing adjectives: the harmonies, repugnant; the disharmonies, wondrous).