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Article 5191 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: zeleny@zariski.harvard.edu (Mikhail Zeleny)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy,sci.philosophy.tech,sci.logic
Subject: Re: Godel's Incompleteness Theorm
Message-ID: <1992Apr22.090427.11413@husc3.harvard.edu>
Date: 22 Apr 92 13:04:24 GMT
Article-I.D.: husc3.1992Apr22.090427.11413
References: <12713@tamsun.tamu.edu> <1992Apr21.171016.11389@husc3.harvard.edu> <OZ.92Apr22012511@ursa.sis.yorku.ca>
Organization: Dept. of Math, Harvard Univ.
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Nntp-Posting-Host: zariski.harvard.edu

In article <OZ.92Apr22012511@ursa.sis.yorku.ca> 
oz@ursa.sis.yorku.ca (Ozan Yigit) writes:

>Mikhail Zeleny writes in regards to the Shanker article in
>the "Goedel's Theorem in Focus": [surprise, surprise]

MZ:
>   It is also predictably content-free, in a collection otherwise ranging from
>   ground-breaking to insightful, to informative.  Why anyone would think that
>   Wittgenstein's remarks on the significance of G\"odel's Theorem were of any
>   interest in the investigation of the latter, is altogether beyond me.

OY:
>If and when you actually read the article, and still find your above
>question "why would anyone think ..." unanswered, feel free to write
>up whatever is troubling you and post it to an appropriate newsgroup
>or mail it to me, and I'll be glad to take it to Shanker in the hope
>that he will provide you with additional help and/or references.

It so happens that I read that article, along with the rest of the book,
about two years ago.  What struck me at the time was not so much the
quality of its research and writing, which was at least serviceable, but
the triviality of its subject matter, which was remarkable, even in the
light of the general negligibility of Wittgenstein's remarks on the
philosophy of mathematics.  In other words, it's not that the author
doesn't understand his subject matter, but that his subject has nothing
interesting to say about it.

Two years ago, at the party held on the occasion of Alonzo Church's
retirement, David Kaplan told the following story, pointing out its
protagonists as he spoke.  It seems that, at the time of his general
examination, a certain PhD candidate, who has since gone on to acquire 
some reknown, had the utmost difficulty in passing its logic part, to 
the extent that the faculty was presented with an uncomfortable dilemma
of either refusing a degree to an otherwise promising student, or, in
granting it, lowering its estabilished standard of excellence in the
relevant area.  They deliberated away, until Alonzo Church (who was
making one of his rare appearances at a departmental meeting) came up
with a suggestion to let our hero pass, on the condition that he promise
to abstain from writing and publishing any articles on the philosophical 
significance of G\"odel's Theorems.  The suggestion was approved by the
faculty and gratefully accepted by the student, and I am happy to say that 
neither of the two books he has published since contains any references to
the aforementioned subjects.

The world would be a far better place if more philosophers were to follow
Church's injunction.  Too bad Wittgenstein couldn't benefit from it.

>oz


`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'
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: Connais pas! Connais pas!                                 think    :
:                                                             so     :
: Mikhail Zeleny                                                     :
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