![]() Finally, she quotes Hilbert as saying: “Mathematics is a game played according to certain simple rules with meaningless marks on paper.” It seems doubtful that Hilbert ever said this. She properly emphasizes Gödel's platonist position, according to which numbers and sets have an objective existence, but she doesn't see that he only adopted this view years after his sensational proof of incompleteness, so she misses the important fact that Gödel set out not to bury Hilbert's programme but to contribute to it. Actually, any other simple code would work as well. Assuming that the particular code that Gödel used for his proof had special properties needed to make it work, she argues that “superhuman efforts” were needed to settle on that code. She writes with a light touch that readers are sure to enjoy, although they should be warned that she is not always entirely accurate. ![]() ![]() Rebecca Goldstein is a distinguished author of several novels that reflect her background as a philosopher. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |