Re: [FOM] Did Gödel's result come as a surprise to Bertrand Russell?

Thomas Forster T.Forster at dpmms.cam.ac.uk
Wed Mar 31 05:01:06 EDT 2010



I have an interesting sidelight on this.  One tends to think that the 
Incompleteness theorem rocked the mathematical world to its foundations 
(geddit!?) but this doesn't appear to be true.  I asked Quine about he he 
came know about it, who told him and so on, and did he remember where he 
was when the news was broken to him, as those of us who were around in 
1963 remember where we were when we heard that Jack Kennedy had been 
assassinated.  He remembered where he was in nov 1963 etc etc but not how 
he came to learn of the incompleteness theorem.

   Do other list-members have stories that others of Quine's generation 
reacted the same way..?

      tf





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