Coined in the introduction to his book, ‘negative mathematics’ is Handelman’s bid to name an approach to critical theory, mathematics, computer science, and the digital humanities which takes mathematics seriously as a part of an emancipatory project.
Humanists ought not to treat mathematics solely as a discipline and syntax of thought inrecupreably allied with capital, a viewpoint that Handelman argues has washed over the humanities since the 1930 debate between Horkheimer/Adorno (the Frankfurt School / critical theory) and Neurath/Carnap (the Vienna Circle / logical positivism),