FOM: f.o.m. and whores

[Martin Davis]

At 05:20 PM 9/11/98 +0100, Harvey Friedman wrote:
>Hersch 1:22PM 9/11/98 writes:
>
>>	In describing foundationalism in the sense of Lakatos,
>>(Frege, Russell, Hilbert, Brouwer) I did not consider or have
>>in mind the research in logic and set theory of Harvey Friedman
>>and his circle.  
>
>I appreciate this comment, but would like to amplify on it and clarify some
>points. ...
>

In no way would I wish to interfere with Harvey's pleasures, and indeed I am
a joyful voyeur of his "whoring"; however with respect to "(Frege, Russell,
Hilbert, Brouwer)" I think Harvey would not disagree that the cogency and
historical backround of his efforts are very much based on "foundational"
work by at least the first three of these. (And likely Hilbert would not
have come back to foundations were it not for his fury with Brouwer, and
particularly with his successful seduction of Hilbert's prize student Weyl.)

Martin