[FOM] Wittgenstein?

[Harvey Friedman]

A substantial segment of the current philosophical community is 
engaged in interpretations of LW. There is fundamental disagreement 
as to what LW had in mind in just about every direction. Yet many 
people find aspects of his ideas fascinating, profound, and 
compelling.

In the TIME/LIFE list of the 20 most influential thinkers of the 20th 
century, LW was present but not Bertrand Russell. Of course, Godel 
and Turing were also on the list.

It appears that Godel probably regarded LW as an ignorant fool in 
connection with the foundations of mathematics on the basis of LW's 
comments about the Godel incompleteness theorems.

Since the interpretations of LW are so varied, voluminous, and 
controversial, it would not be useful to the FOM list to simply have 
people provide references to the literature concerning LW's 
philosophy.

So I think it would be valuable if knowledgeable subscribers would 
address the following challenging question:

*DID LW WRITE ANYTHING THAT CAN AT LEAST BE REASONABLY INTERPRETED AS 
BEING SIGNIFICANT FOR THE FOUNDATIONS OF MATHEMATICS? IF SO, EXACTLY 
WHAT?*

I have my own hidden agenda. I believe that anything that is 
significant for the foundations of mathematics can be built on and 
developed into a substantial advance in f.o.m. that is backed up by 
relevant (new) mathematical results.

Also, showing that something is not significant for the foundations 
of mathematics frequently involves making a substantial advance in 
f.o.m. that is backed up by relevant (new) mathematical results.

A site search of the FOM archives on Wittgenstein reveals quite a 
number of postings. Surely many of the authors will want to take up 
the challenge, and avoid having this place of record for f.o.m. (the 
FOM) leave the impression that the answer to this is: NO.