Algebraic Concepts Characterized / Architectonic Articulations / Projective Theory of Technology / Thinking as an Algebraic Mechanist / Uncategorized

Architectonic disposition: ichnography, scenography, orthography

 by Vera Bühlmann author’s manuscript. In his Ten Books on Architecture, the Roman architect Vitruvius gathered all the existent knowledge on architecture in one comprehensive treaty including the building of temples, of course, but also the construction of clocks (gnomon, sun-dials) and the fabrication of machinery. The dedicated aim of gathering all the distributed knowledge … Continue reading

Algebraic Concepts Characterized / Distinguishing the General from the Generic / Metalithikum / Pre-specificity

Characteristica Designata II: Polynominality, and the question of structural amphiboly

“Bombelli [(1526-1572)] had given meaning to the “meaningless” by thinking the “unthinkable,” namely that square roots of negative numbers could be manipulated in a meaningful way to yield significant results. This was a very bold move on his part. As he put it: ‘it was a wild thought in the judgment of many; and I … Continue reading

Algebraic Concepts Characterized / Gilles Deleuze / Little Dramas Staged / Plotting from History / Projective Theory of Technology / Thinking as an Algebraic Mechanist

The idea of a Characteristica Universalis between Leibniz and Russell, and its relevancy today

Abstract In this post I will investigate the Leibnizian idea of a Characteristica Universalis from a comparative point of view on two diverging paradigms on computation that can be distinguished, as I will argue, to have emerged since the end of the 19th century. While algebraists like Augustus de Morgan, George Boole, Charles Sanders Peirce … Continue reading

Algebraic Concepts Characterized / Little Dramas Staged

A “Lobachevsky-like” revolution in arithmetics

“I have not yet any clear view as to the extent to which we are at liberty arbitrarily to create imaginaries, and to endow them with supernatural properties” declared John Graves in reaction to his mathematician friend’s invention of the quaternions (Hamilton 1843). Henri Poincaré held it as: “a revolution in arithmetic which is entirely … Continue reading