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In:Crises We Live By: A transdisciplinary study of crisis and its metaphors in their cultural context
Edited by Irene Leonardis
[Cognitive Linguistic Studies in Cultural Contexts 20] 2026
► pp. 241–260

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From a protective space to an erupting crisis

Rousseau, Freud and Blumenberg on mathematics and its metaphors

 | University of Bonn
Published online: 5 February 2026
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https://doi.org/10.1075/clscc.20.11fri
Abstract
Which metaphors can be employed to account for a crisis of sexuality? And how is mathematics even related to such a crisis? At the end of the 18th century, Rousseau viewed mathematics as a “safe place” which should be protected from such crises of sexuality. At the beginning of the 20th century, Freud highlighted the contrary, presenting mathematics as a “treacherous space” where such crises could very well erupt. To analyse this metaphorical transition, I will turn to Hans Blumenberg, whose theory reveals Rousseau’s and Freud’s works as background metaphors, which also operated in 19th century mathematical discourse. Blumenberg himself reflects on this transition via the shipwreck metaphor, which was also adopted by Freud and Rousseau, albeit in other frameworks.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Rousseau and Freud on crisis and mathematics
    • 2.1Rousseau’s Confessions: Or, why was Rousseau sent to learn mathematics?
    • 2.2Freud’s Gradiva: Rereading Rousseau’s Confessions
  • 3.Metaphors of mathematical crisis (I)
    • 3.1Blumenberg on metaphors and mathematical concepts
    • 3.2Crises and mathematics with Blumenberg’s metaphorology
  • 4.Metaphors of mathematical crisis (II): The monstrous sea and the collapsing foundations
    • 4.1The foundation crisis in the history of mathematics and its metaphors
    • 4.2Mathematical crises and “earlier shipwrecks”
  • 5.Conclusion: Transformations of metaphors of mathematics with and within Blumenberg
  • Notes
  • References
References (32)
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