Albert Lautman: Dialectics in mathematics

In this paper, I shall first explore Lautman’s conception of dialectics by a consideration of his references to Plato and Heidegger. I shall then compare the dialectical structures that he found in contemporary mathematics with the model that emerges from his philosophical sources. I shall argue that the structures that he discovered in mathematics are richer than his Platonist model suggests, and that Heidegger’s ‘ontological’ distinction is less useful than Lautman seemed to believe.