The “scientific subject” in A. Badiou’s philosophical system: The case of Chomskyan biolinguistics

Authors

  • Norman R. Madarasz Université de Paris VIII

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15448/1984-6746.2016.3.26228

Keywords:

ontology, subjectivity, genericity, language, structure.

Abstract

In this essay, we argue that Noam Chomsky’s biolinguistic program contains an underlying ontology, the implication of which involves a radical transformation of the notion of subject/Self and the category of identity upon which it is supported, as well as the Kuhnian postulates of normal science. Indeed, one of the challenges of a structuralist ontology, in relation to which Chomsky is personally remote albeit formally proximate, is to transpose the theses of the real in relation to the question of being and event to that of a realism, the field of which organizes the creation of a differential and generic subject by means of generating elementary syntactic structures that are mapped onto word-strings. As such, linguistic capacity joins in the production and creation of identity. We argue that the biolinguistic program is still revolutionary insofar as it has triggered as well as perpetuated a new figure of subject in the sciences, that is, a revolutionary figure of science in relation to which a fundamental ontology is adequate only insofar as being based on multiplicity, such as Alain Badiou has articulated.

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Published

2017-01-05

How to Cite

Madarasz, N. R. (2017). The “scientific subject” in A. Badiou’s philosophical system: The case of Chomskyan biolinguistics. Veritas (Porto Alegre), 61(3), 466–491. https://doi.org/10.15448/1984-6746.2016.3.26228

Issue

Section

Epistemology, Phenomenology and Metaphysics