The future in the face: of physiognomy to artificial intelligence
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.1982-8160.v18i3p55-84Keywords:
Mathematics, semiotics, face, measurement, racismAbstract
This article analyzes the cultural semiotics of mathematics as a language based on human cognition, but often used as a biased rhetoric. Instead of merely structuring reality, it attributes commensurability and precision to ideological domains. It focuses on the mathematical measurement of the body, especially the head and face, practices which, since the Enlightenment, sought to objectify racist prejudices. Facial measurement aimed to define beauty, intelligence, and morality but served as a tool for biopolitical control. The analysis reveals that prejudice lies not in the measurements themselves, but in the decision to measure.
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