L'important,C'est Les Lunettes

Applying mathematics to solve any problem inevitably grants an aura of objectivity and truth to the results generated through such methodology. However, mathematics remains a means of elucidation that functions within strict constraints of tractability and stylization. Despite the aesthetics of models and the precision of computation, mathematical representations are but a shadow of the reality they seek to characterize. Nonetheless, because mathematics' pure form hides its own limitations, it becomes a privileged site of scholastic reason and, at the same time, of symbolic violence, two notions that Bourdieu theorized in his work. Despite this handicap, Bourdieu recognized the importance of formalizing tools such as those derived from mathematics. He thus devised many strategies to take advantage of their power of elucidation while avoiding the distortions and dogmatic stance they unavoidably bring about. This paper examines these strategies in detail to further inspire the identification of a number of reflexive approaches that can deflect the potential symbolic violence of mathematical reasoning. In this analysis, particular attention is given to the specific needs of practitioners engaged in mathematical formulation such as economists, statisticians, operations researchers and other quantitative scientists. This process of reflexive discovery is then used to enrich the notion of ‘specific intellectual’ that Foucault introduced and that Bourdieu further specified and ‘lived’. The paper concludes by foregrounding the perhaps unexpected moral dimensions of applied mathematics, a discipline that otherwise often appear distant and esoteric.