I actually met Goedel 30 years ago while a Princeton undergraduate philosophy major. I looked up across the table at the Student Center and saw him eating a cheesesteak, a truly disgusting NJ/Philly concoction. I was eating one too. I stammered and said, uh er, Dr, Goedel, your work has given mea great deal of pleasure. (Though at the time I had only read _about_ it -- I wasn't able to read the theorem until grad school.) He said, Dank you. That was my conversation with Goedel.
Goldstein, if she is the person I am thinking of, was a Princeton grad student in philosophyw ho wrote a roman a clef about the dept in those days, with thinly disguised pictures of the dept members, not the best novel, but required reading for everyone in philosophy in them distant days. People should remember that Goedel's incompleteness theorem had a specific target: it was an attack on the logicist program of Russell and Whitehead and their attempt to derive arithmetic from logic. It was awork in the foundations of mathematics and demolished that program -- so the effect of the theorem is sort of negative. It stopped work in a certain direction. So people don't need to know its details unless they teach math logic or work in the foundations of mathematics. Btw, maths are so specialized these days that most mathematicians don't know much about the whole picture. A number theorist doesn't necessarily know any topology, for example. Doesn't need to, for sure. > Victor> Sent: Monday, March 14, 2005 5:08 PM > Subject: [Marxism-Thaxis] Does Gödel Matter? > > > > Does Gödel Matter? > > > > The romantic's favorite mathematician didn't prove > what you think he did. > > > > By Jordan Ellenberg > > > > the Washington Post's SLATE/Posted Thursday, March > 10, 2005, at 4:27 AM PT > > > > The reticent and relentlessly abstract logician > Kurt Gödel might seem an > > unlikely candidate for popular appreciation. But > that's what Rebecca > > Goldstein aims for in her new book > _Incompleteness_, an account of Gödel's > > most famous theorem, which was announced 75 years > ago this October. > > Goldstein calls Gödel's incompleteness theorem > "the third leg, together > with > > Heisenberg's uncertainty principle and Einstein's > relativity, of that > tripod > > of theoretical cataclysms that have been felt to > force disturbances deep > > down in the foundations of the 'exact sciences.' " > > > > What is this great theorem? And what difference > does it really make? > >> > > > In his recent New York _Times_ review of > _Incompleteness_, Edward > Rothstein > > wrote that it's "difficult to overstate the impact > of Gödel's theorem." > But > > actually, it's easy to overstate it: Goldstein > does it when she likens the > > impact of Gödel's incompleteness theorem to that > of relativity and quantum > > mechanics and calls him "the most famous > mathematician that you have most > > likely never heard of." But what's most startling > about Gödel's theorem, > > given its conceptual importance, is not how much > it's changed mathematics, > > but how little. No theoretical physicist could > start a career today > without > > a thorough understanding of Einstein's and > Heisenberg's contributions. But > > most pure mathematicians can easily go through > life with only a vague > > acquaintance with Gödel's work. So far, I've done > it m __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
