“Math is in everything”? Problematizing a reason-world and a reason of the world

Abstract

This essay seeks to problematize the expression “Mathematics is in everything!”, used as the theme of the 14th Edition of the National Week of Science and Technology, held in Brazil, evidencing it as a questioning that crosses all its writing. To this end, the text is composed of two acts, namely: the owner of the party; and my living room is bigger than the world. The first one aims to show the constitution of Mathematics as a noun, the reason for itself and for others. To do so, Foucauldian analysis is used regarding the constitution of a discursive formation as knowledge. The second, seeks to problematize this constitution as a reason-world and reason of the world, affirming the effectuation of a capture of the processes of subjectivation as a form of actualization of its power. With these two acts, we develop the consideration that mathematics is established as a rationality, constituting itself as a form of governmentalization of subjectivities in contemporary society. As final considerations, the question “who are we”, raised by Michel Foucault in the last century, is presented as an ethical and political strategy that seeks to get rid of this rationality and this individualizing bond.