The following syllabus is imagined for a future reading group/class/discussion group based on the growing interest in the philosophy of mathematics from the perspective of Black Studies. The accompanied readings are not exhaustive of and for the field of history and philosophy of mathematics, but are interesting avenues or pathways into the discussion of math, Blackness, philosophy and experience. The movies that accompany each week only add to a hope of making the questions of math, philosophy, experience and Blackness more inviting and ‘entertaining.’ The principle of this syllabus is to open Black Studies up to the mysterium tremendum that is the ‘unreasonable effectiveness’ of mathematics.
Week 0. Meno’s Slave.
Plato, Meno
Aristotle, Metaphysics xiii + xiv
Eugene Wigner, “The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences”
Film: A Brief History of Time, Errol Morris
Week 1. A Concise History of Mathematics Black Life.
Dirk Struik, A Concise History of Mathematics
Katherine McKittrick, “Mathematics Black Life”
Film: A Theory of Everything, James Marsh
Week 2. Radical Equations: Beyond The Equation of Value.
Bob Moses, Radical Equations – Civil Rights from Mississippi to the Algebra Project
Denise Ferreira Da Silva, “On Matter Beyond the Equation of Value”
Film: Hidden Figures, Theodor Melfi
Week 3. Catastrophe and The Foundations of Mathematics.
Ludwig Wittgenstein, Lectures on the Foundations of Mathematics
Calvin Warren, “The Catastrophe: Black Feminist Poethic, (Anti)form, and Mathematical Nihilism”
Film: Journeys of Black Mathematicians, George Csicsery
(Projected premiere date: January 2024)
Week 4. The Antiphilosophy of The T(o)uring Machine
Alain Badiou, Wittgeinstein’s Antiphilosophy
Fred Moten, “The T(o)uring Machine,”
Film: The Imitation Game, Morten Tydlum
Week 5. The Logic of Black Time.
Hegel, Science of Logic, Section 1 – 4
Calvin Warren, “Black Time: Slavery, Metaphysics, and the Logic of Wellness,”
Film: The Man Who Knew Infinity, Matthew Brown
Week 6. Husserl and The Crisis of the Philosophy of Arithmetic.
Edmund Husserl, Philosophy of Arithmetic, Chapter 1 – 7.
John Murungi, “Husserl and The Crisis of Philosophy”
Jean Cavaillès + Albert Lautman, “Mathematical Thought”
Film: A Beautiful Mind, Ron Howard
Week 7. Topographical Topics in The Origin of Geometry.
Jacques Derrida, Origin of Geometry
Hortense Spillers, “Topographical Topics,”
Film: Agora, Alejandro Amenabar
Week 8. N is a Negro, N is a Number: A Portrait of Sentient Flesh.
Alain Badiou, Number and Numbers
Ronald Judy, Sentient Flesh, “Asymptotic Thinking,” + “Thinking with Number Theory”
Film: N is a Number: A Portrait of Paul Erdos, George Csicsery
Week 9. Black (W)holes and Event: The Geometry of Black Feminist Being.
Alain Badiou, Being and Event, Part 1 + 4
Evelyn Hammond, “Black (W)holes and The Geometry of Black Feminist Sexuality”
Film: Woman in Motion, Todd Thompson
Week 10. African Fractals and The History of Mathematics.
Simon Duffy, Deleuze and The History of Mathematics
Ron Eglash, African Fractals
Film: The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind, Chiwetel Ejiofor
Week 11. Contemporary Mathematics
Fernando Zalamea, Synthetic Philosophy of Contemporary Mathematics
Black Studies, Science Studies: Science of the Word Conference https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/852843828
Mumble Theory 