Robert Musil: mathematics as the audacity of pure ratio

Abstract

This paper provides a reconstruction of the peculiar role that mathematics plays in Robert Musil's work, focusing especially on his first novel The Confusion of Young Törless and on his essay entitled ''The Mathematical Man''. The analysis shows that the novelty of Musil's approach consists mainly into two different conceptual operations: on the one hand, he identifies the irrational and passionate aspects of this science; on the other hand, he suggests the use of mathematics and its dual nature to resolve the conflict between the emotional and the intellectual human spheres, which to him represented the fundamental cause of the crisis of the modernity.