“The world is totally connected. Whatever explanation we invent at any moment is a partial connection, and its richness derives from the richness of such connections as we are able to make. ...mathematics suffer from the same partiality. Gödel, Turing, and Tarski all proved this. Gödel proved that you cannot have a complete axiomatization of the whole of mathematics, that every system which you devise is partial and suffers from one great shortcoming. If it is consistent, there are theorems which are true that cannot be proved in it. And Turing showed that every machine that we can devise is like a formal system, and that therefore no machine can do all of mathematics. And Tarski put it even more boldly when he said that no universal language for all of science can exist in all cases without paradox.<!--pp. 96-97-->”
“These doubts did not halt mathematical creation. Technicians working on the superstructure did not drop their tools and scurry down to the basement because some of their underpinning needed reinforcin...”
Foundations of mathematics
“The truth is that the mathematical sciences are growing in complete security and harmony. The ideas of Dedekind, Poincare, and Hilbert have been systematically developed with great success, without an...”
Foundations of mathematics
“As soon as I have put it into order I intend to write and if possible to publish a work on parallels. At this moment, it is not yet finished, but the way which I have followed promises me with certain...”
Foundations of mathematics
“I should regard it as a great misfortune if you were to allow yourself to be deterred by the 'clamors of the Bœotians' from explaining your views of geometry. From what Lambert has said and [Ferdinand...”
Foundations of mathematics
“It is in set theory that we encounter the greatest diversity of foundational opinions. This is because even the most devoted advocates of the various new axioms would not argue that these axioms are j...”
Foundations of mathematics