[FOM] Did Goedel "read philosophy"?

[mlink@math.bu.edu]

Dear Professor Parsons,

  The sources you mentioned form a substantial reading list,
especially given the challenges in understanding Goedel's
philosophy, even given Wang's penetrating investigations,
although these sources no doubt constitute the central
texts.  New readers may not know that articles in the
Collected Works are carefully introduced, which is of great
help.

  Still, for orientation in the early going on, as well as
repeated reference thereafter, readers of this list might
appreciate an article that you did not mention by name:
Charles Parsons, `Platonism and mathematical intuition in
Kurt Goedel's thought', The Bulletin of Symbolic Logic 1,
no. 1 (Mar., 1995), 44--74.

  They might also check out the June 2005 BSL (vol 11, no 1)
for some state of the art philosophical inquiry in an issue
devoted to Goedel.  That issue of the journal was encouraged
by Professor Feferman.  Great stuff.  Last year (April 2006,
Notices of the AMS, pp. 419--427) there was a relevant
article on historical connections to set theory and logic,
`How Goedel tranformed set theory', by Professors Floyd and
Kanamori.

  That is far from a comprehensive survey, not even
including all significant publications on Goedel's
philosophy in the BSL.  While these inquiries are ongoing,
it seems fair to say that some progress has been made in
clarifying central issues and identifying characteristic
features of Goedel's philosophy.  

  I wonder if that would constitute progress in philosophy for
Professor Friedman.  Looking back over the discussion in
recent weeks, to frame my question in those terms, I do not
know if this sort of research enters the penumbra suggested
by Professor Steel.

--ml

*
Parsons wrote:

Neither Mr. Buckner nor Mr. Hardy seems to be aware that there are 
five volumes of Goedel's Collected Works in print (Oxford University 
Press, 1986-2003). There are several papers in volumes II and III 
that would be described as philosophical, including his notes on the 
ontological argument. Other items in these volumes, including the 
correspondence in volumes IV-V, give quite a bit of evidence about 
his engagement with philosophy and what he read.

Another source is the two books by Hao Wang, _Refelctions on Kurt 
Goedel_ (MIT Press, 1987) and _A Logical Journey: From Goedel to 
Philosophy_ (MIT Press, 1986), as well as papers in various 
publications, in particular the Bulletin of Symbolic Logic.