Mathematics and Information in the Philosophy of Michel Serres (Michel Serres and Material Futures)

"This book introduces the reader to Serres' unique manner of 'doing philosophy' that can be traced throughout his entire oeuvre: namely as a novel manner of bearing witness. It explores how Serres takes note of a range of epistemologically unsettling situations, which he understands as arising from the short-circuit of a proprietary notion of capital with a praxis of science that commits itself to a form of reasoning which privileges the most direct path (simple method) in order to expend minimal efforts while pursuing maximal efficiency. In Serres' universal economy, value is considered as a function of rarity, not as a stock of resources. This book demonstrates how Michel Serres has developed an architectonics that is coefficient with nature. Mathematic and Information in the Philosophy of Michel Serres acquaints the reader with Serres' monist manner of addressing the universality and the power of knowledge - that is at once also the anonymous and empty faculty of incandescent, inventive thought. The chapters of the book demarcate, problematize and contextualize some of the epistemologically unsettling situations Serres addresses, whilst also examining the particular manner in which he responds to and converses with these situations."--Bloomsbury Publishing. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Series 3 Title 4 Copyright 5 Dedication 6 Contents 8 Preface 11 Acknowledgments 22 1 Introduction 24 The Plan of This Book 35 2 Quantum Literacy 40 Elementary Indecision 41 Bearing Witness and Literacy 41 Cultivating Indecision: The Quantum Domain’s Domesticity 44 Ciphers, Zeroness, Equations: Architectonics of Nothing 46 Chance-bound Objects 53 Taking Ignorance into Account: Quantifying Strangeness 56 Entropy and Negentropy 56 The Price of Information as a Measure for an Object’s Strangeness 65 Quantum Literacy: Toward a Novel Theory of the Subject 72 “La Langue est une Puissance” 74 3 Chronopedia I: Counting Time 78 Meteora: The Wisdom of the Weather 78 Code: A Rosetta Stone, a Double Staircase 78 Time Modelled as Contemporaneity 79 Counting Time: Equinox and Solstice 83 The Turning Points for Modelled Beginnings and Ends 84 Of Tables and Models 85 Sense Means Significance and Direction 87 Meteora 88 A Logos Genuine to the World: “Le logiciél intra-matériel” 89 Software, Hardware 89 Economy of Maxima and Minima: An Anarchic Logos 92 4 Chronopedia II: Treasuring Time 96 Homothesis as the Locus in Quo of the Universal’s Presence 96 First Iteration (Acquiring a Space of Possibility) 96 Second Iteration (Learning to Speak a Language in which No One Is Native) 97 Third Iteration (Setting the Stage for Thought to Comprehend Itself) 98 Fourth Iteration (Intelligence That Is Immanent to and Coextensive with the Universe) 99 Fifth Iteration (Inventing a Scale of Reproduction) 100 Sixth Iteration (the Formula, a Double-articulating Application) 102 The Amorous Nature of Intellectual Conception: Silent Words That Conserve the Articulations of an Impersonal Voice 102 First Iteration (Marking All That Is Assumed to Be Constant with a Cipher) 102 Second Iteration (Confluence of Multiple Geneses) 104 Third Iteration (the Residence of That which Is Genuinely Migrational) 104 Fourth Iteration (Universal Genitality) 106 Fifth Iteration (Mathematics Is the Circuit of Cunning Reason’s Ruses) 107 Sixth Iteration (the Real as a Black Spectrum) 108 5 Banking Universality: The Magnitudes of Ageing 112 Metaphysics 112 The Quickness of a Magnanimous Universe 112 Invariance: Genericness in Terms of Entropy and Negentropy 115 Genuine to and Immanent to the All of Time: Le “logiciél intra-matériel” 117 White Metaphysics: How Old Does the World Think It Is? 119 Freedom 121 The Neutral Element: Materialism of Identity 121 (Pan’s) Glossematics: The Economy That Deals with “Purport” 123 Quanta of Contemporaneity: Heat to Incandescence, Storage to Bank Account 125 Quantum Writing: Substitutes Step in to Address Things Themselves 127 6 The Incandescent Paraclete: Tables of Plenty 132 Equatoriality Generalized 132 Coming of Age, Liking Sunset and Sunrise 135 How to Combine Precision with Finesse, or: Euphoria Contained by Instruments That Behave Like Cornucopia 145 The (Mathematical) Inverse of Pantopia Is Not a Utopia: Law in the Panonymy of the Whole World 147 The Objective Mentality and Character of Instruments 151 The Vicarious Order of Knowledge That Is Authentic to the World 157 Pan: The Excitable Subject of Universal Knowledge 159 Generational Con-sequentiality 160 Blessed Curiosity 160 Exodic Discourse 164 7 Sophistication and Anamnesis: Remembering an Abundant Past 170 Architectonics within the Domain of a Withholding Power 170 The Price of Truth, and the Price of Information 170 A Science of Literalness, and the Convertibility of Truth 172 Classicism: Remembering Contemporaneity 175 Classical Analysis, Symbolic Analysis 175 Interlude: The Eiffel Tower, Archetypal Symbol of Existentialism? 181 Building a Cipher 181 A Corpus of Intelligent Forms 183 The Technical Order of an Object That Is Comfortable 184 How to Reason the Sum Total of All Archetypes? 185 Toward Critique with Regard to the Symbolic Alchemy of Mythmaking 187 A Realist Classicism 188 Metaphysical Import: Architectonic Models That Conserve an Analogy 192 8 Coda: Architecture in the Meteora 196 9 Instead of a Conclusion: The Static Tripod1 204 Notes 208 Preface 208 1 Introduction 208 2 Quantum Literacy 212 3 Chronopedia I: Counting Time 221 4 Chronopedia II: Treasuring Time 223 5 Banking Universality: The Magnitudes of Ageing 227 6 The Incandescent Paraclete: Tables of Plenty 230 7 Sophistication and Anamnesis: Remembering an Abundant Past 235 8 Coda: Architecture in the Meteora 241 9 Insteadof a Conclusion: The Static Tripod 242 Bibliography 244 Index 250 "This book introduces the reader to Serres' manner of 'doing philosophy' that can be traced throughout his entire oeuvre: namely as a novel manner of bearing witness. It traces how Serres takes note of a range of epistemologically unsettling situations, which he witnesses as arising from the short-circuit of a proprietary notion of capital with a praxis of science that commits itself to a form of reasoning which privileges the most direct path (simple method) in order to expend minimal efforts while pursuing maximal efficiency. In Serres' universal economy, value is considered as a function of rarity, not as a stock of resources. This book demonstrates how Michel Serres has developed an architectonics that is coefficient with nature. It acquaints the reader with Serres' monist manner of addressing the universality and the power of knowledge - that is at once also the anonymous and empty faculty of incandescent, inventive thought. It proceeds in a twofold manner: on the one hand, the chapters of the book demarcate, problematize and contextualize some of these epistemologically unsettling situations within the techno-scientific domains that have propelled their formation. On the other hand, careful attention is given to the particular manner in which Michel Serres responds to and converses with these situations, testifying for an "exodic" rather than "methodic" praxis of a science that is entirely of this world, and yet not deprived of its dignity."-- Provided by publisher "This book introduces the reader to Serres' manner of 'doing philosophy' that can be traced throughout his entire oeuvre: namely as a novel manner of bearing witness. It traces how Serres takes note of a range of epistemologically unsettling situations, which he witnesses as arising from the short-circuit of a proprietary notion of capital with a praxis of science that commits itself to a form of reasoning which privileges the most direct path (simple method) in order to expend minimal efforts while pursuing maximal efficiency. In Serres' universal economy, value is considered as a function of rarity, not as a stock of resources. This book demonstrates how Michel Serres has developed an architectonics that is coefficient with nature. It acquaints the reader with Serres' monist manner of addressing the universality and the power of knowledge - that is at once also the anonymous and empty faculty of incandescent, inventive thought. It proceeds in a twofold manner: on the one hand, the chapters of the book demarcate, problematize and contextualize some of these epistemologically unsettling situations within the techno-scientific domains that have propelled their formation. On the other hand, careful attention is given to the particular manner in which Michel Serres responds to and converses with these situations, testifying for an "exodic" rather than "methodic" praxis of a science that is entirely of this world, and yet not deprived of its dignity."-- Résumé de l'éditeur