Mathematical Formalism: the Bildungsroman of Matter

This essay examines what is known as mathematical formalism in the field of literary studies by providing a set of referneces from Pythagoras, Kant, Coleridge, Geoerge Boole, Augustus de Morgan, Andrea Henderson to Paul de Man. As varied as it seems, the center of the referential set is Kant. Kant’s aesthetics is one crucial reference in mathematical formalism. Mathematical formalism’s justification for its use of mathematics in the field of art is that Kantian aesthetic form is mathematical. This essay takes one step further from there. I argue that mathematical formalism reveals its true nature when we see that in Kant, there are two different types of mathematics, intuitive and formalist mathematics, and the former gives way to the latter due to its inherent limitations. The limitations of intuitive mathematics is that as it is based on the a priori framework of intuition, it does not allow for the empirical agency of matter. Kant solves the issue by formulating formalist mathematics in his third critique. This transition from intuitive to formalist mathematics makes a case for what can be called the Bildungsroman of matter: unlike mathematical formalism’s static understanding of Kant’s third critique, this essay’s approach captures the moment of formalist mathematics’s emergence from within matter.