-
Got 312 into a pseudo-finished state. Need to proofread the, uh,
proofs.
Hm, Goedel's theorem is historically deeply like Pythagoras's
discovery of irrationals, even more so than I previously
realized.
Pythagoras's assumption that all numbers are rational, that
they can be represented in a certain, finite way, corresponds
neatly to Hilbert's tacit assumption that all true statements
are 'rationally' obtainable, that is, from a finitely
describable set of axioms. But there are countably many
rationals and countably many theorems, but uncountably many
reals and uncountably many models of PA...
proofs.
Hm, Goedel's theorem is historically deeply like Pythagoras's
discovery of irrationals, even more so than I previously
realized.
Pythagoras's assumption that all numbers are rational, that
they can be represented in a certain, finite way, corresponds
neatly to Hilbert's tacit assumption that all true statements
are 'rationally' obtainable, that is, from a finitely
describable set of axioms. But there are countably many
rationals and countably many theorems, but uncountably many
reals and uncountably many models of PA...