mathematics

Matheme

Matheme is a mathematics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Matheme rather than just read about it. In short: The matheme (French: mathème, from Greek: μάθημα "lesson") is a concept introduced in the work of the 20th century French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. The term matheme "occurred for the first time in the lecture Lacan delivered on November 4th, 1971 [...] Between 1972 and 1973 he gave several definitions of it, passing from the use of the singular to the use of the plural and back again".

Key takeaways

Matheme belongs to mathematics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Matheme to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Matheme from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The matheme (French: mathème, from Greek: μάθημα "lesson") is a concept introduced in the work of the 20th century French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. The term matheme "occurred for the first time in the lecture Lacan delivered on November 4th, 1971 [...] Between 1972 and 1973 he gave several definitions of it, passing from the use of the singular to the use of the plural and back again".

Characteristics David Macey writes in his introduction to the translation of Lacan's The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis that "Lacan saw his "matheme" as something that would ensure the integral transmission of his teachings ... proof against the "noise" or interference inherent in any process of communication". They are formulae, designed as symbolic representations of his ideas and analyses. They were intended to introduce some degree of technical rigour in philosophical and psychological writing, replacing the often hard-to-understand verbal descriptions with formulae resembling those used in the hard sciences, and as an easy way to hold, remember, and rehearse some of the core ideas of both Freud and Lacan. For example: "$<>a" is the matheme for fantasy in the Lacanian sense, in which "$" refers to the subject as split into the subject of utterance and uttered subject (hence the matheme is a barred S), "a" stands for the object-cause of desire, and "<>" stands for the relationship between the two. A more complex set of mathemes are Lacan's "formulae of sexuation" which he outlined in the March 13, 1973, session of his Seminar XX. Composed of two pairs of propositions written in a unique logico-mathematical shorthand inspired by Gottlob Frege, one pair was dubbed 'masculine' and the other 'feminine.' These formulae Lacan originally constructed from Aristotelian logic over the course of an entire year of study. The "matheme", for Lacan, is not simply the imitation of science by philosophy, but the ideal of a perfect means for the integral transmission of knowledge. Natural language, with its constant "metonymic slide", fails here, where mathematics succeeds. Contemporary philosopher Alain Badiou identifies "matheme" with the scientific procedure.

Criticism Though sometimes disparaged as a case of "physics envy" or accused of introducing false rigor into a discipline that is more literary theory than hard science, there is also something of a sense of humor in Lacan's formulas: of one 'sigla which I have introduced in the form of an algorithm', Lacan himself has declared that 'it is created to allow for a hundred and one different readings, a multiplicity that is admissible as long as the spoken remains caught in its algebra'. Serge Leclaire, who is one of the most respected and distinguished of all French analysts, remarked in 1975, for example, that whilst the mathemes might have a certain pedagogic utility, they were basically no more than "graffiti"'.

References

External links Lacanian Matheme Fonts provided by the Australian Centre for Psychoanalysis Lacan's Sexuation Formulas by Jack W. Stone.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Matheme

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Matheme claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In mathematics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Matheme before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Matheme ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Matheme

In research: Matheme appears in mathematics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Matheme in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Matheme is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Jacques Lacan, Post-structuralism, Psychoanalytic terminology, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Matheme outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Matheme in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Matheme means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Matheme out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Matheme in simple terms?

Why does Matheme matter?

Because it connects several mathematics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Matheme?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Matheme.