PORTRAITS OF SCIENCE: Kurt Godel-Separating Truth from Proof in Mathematics

Portraits of science. Kurt Gödel--separating truth from proof in mathematics.

Mathematics : Truth and Fiction ?

Mark Balaguer's project in this book is extremely ambitious; he sets out to defend both platonism and fictionalism about mathematical entities. Moreover, Balaguer argues that at the end of the day, platonism and fictionalism are on an equal footing. Not content to leave the matter there, however, he advances the anti-metaphysical conclusion that there is no fact of the matter about the existenc...

Science and evidence: separating fact from fiction.

Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is the integration of individual clinical expertise with the best available research evidence from systematic research and the patient's values and expectations. A hierarchy of evidence can be used to assess the strength upon which clinical decisions are made. The efficient approach to finding the best evidence is to identify systematic reviews or evidence-based cl...

Necessary Truth and Proof

What makes necessary truths true? I argue that all truth supervenes on how things are, and that necessary truths are no exception. What makes them true are proofs. But if so, the notion of proof needs to be generalized to include verification-transcendent proofs, proofs whose correctness exceeds our ability to verify it. It is incumbent on me, therefore, to show that arguments, such as Dummett’...

Book Review: Logical Dilemmas: The Life and Work of Kurt Godel and Godel: A Life of Logic, Volume 48, Number 8

In its March 29, 1999, issue TIME magazine provided its picks for the twenty greatest “scientists and thinkers” of the twentieth century. Kurt Gödel was on the list along with his good friend Albert Einstein. Alan Turing was the other mathematician among the twenty. Since we may agree that Einstein should be regarded primarily as a physicist, it turns out that the mathematicians TIME selected a...