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Kurt Gödel

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Kurt Gödel
Gödelc.1926
Born
Kurt Friedrich Gödel

(1906-04-28)April 28, 1906
Brünn,Austria-Hungary(now Brno, Czech Republic)
DiedJanuary 14, 1978(1978-01-14)(aged 71)
Princeton, New Jersey,U.S.
Citizenship
  • Austria
  • Czechoslovakia
  • Germany
  • United States
Alma materUniversity of Vienna(PhD,1930)
Known for
Spouse
Adele Nimbursky
​
(m.1938)​
Awards
Scientific career
FieldsMathematics,mathematical logic,physics
InstitutionsInstitute for Advanced Study
ThesisÜber die Vollständigkeit des Logikkalküls(1929)
Doctoral advisorHans Hahn
Philosophy career
Era20th-century philosophy
RegionWestern philosophy
SchoolAnalytic philosophy
Main interests
Signature

Kurt Friedrich Gödel(/ˈɡɜːrdəl/GUR-dəl;[2]German:[kʊʁtˈɡøːdl̩]ⓘ;April 28, 1906 – January 14, 1978) was alogician,mathematician,andphilosopher.Considered along withAristotleandGottlob Fregeto be one of the most significant logicians in history, Gödel profoundly influenced scientific and philosophical thinking in the 20th century (at a time whenBertrand Russell,[3]Alfred North Whitehead,[3]andDavid Hilbertwere usinglogicandset theoryto investigate thefoundations of mathematics), building on earlier work by Frege,Richard Dedekind,andGeorg Cantor.

Gödel's discoveries in the foundations of mathematics led to the proof ofhis completeness theoremin 1929 as part of his dissertation to earn a doctorate at theUniversity of Vienna,and the publication ofGödel's incompleteness theoremstwo years later, in 1931. The first incompleteness theorem states that for anyω-consistentrecursiveaxiomatic systempowerful enough to describe the arithmetic of thenatural numbers(for example,Peano arithmetic), there are true propositions about the natural numbers that can be neither proved nor disproved from the axioms.[4]To prove this, Gödel developed a technique now known asGödel numbering,which codes formal expressions as natural numbers. The second incompleteness theorem, which follows from the first, states that the system cannot prove its own consistency.[5]

Gödel also showed that neither theaxiom of choicenor thecontinuum hypothesiscan be disproved from the acceptedZermelo–Fraenkel set theory,assuming that its axioms are consistent. The former result opened the door for mathematicians to assume the axiom of choice in their proofs. He also made important contributions toproof theoryby clarifying the connections betweenclassical logic,intuitionistic logic,andmodal logic.

Early life and education

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Childhood

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Gödel was born April 28, 1906, in Brünn,Austria-Hungary(nowBrno,Czech Republic), into the German-speaking family of Rudolf Gödel (1874–1929), the managing director and part owner of a major textile firm, and Marianne Gödel (néeHandschuh, 1879–1966).[6]At the time of his birth the city had aGerman-speakingmajority which included his parents.[7]His father was Catholic and his mother was Protestant and the children were raised as Protestants. The ancestors of Kurt Gödel were often active in Brünn's cultural life. For example, his grandfather Joseph Gödel was a famous singer in his time and for some years a member of theBrünner Männergesangverein(Men's Choral Union of Brünn).[8]

Gödel automatically became a citizen ofCzechoslovakiaat age 12 when the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed following its defeat in theFirst World War.According to his classmateKlepetař,like many residents of the predominantly GermanSudetenländer,"Gödel considered himself always Austrian and an exile in Czechoslovakia".[9]In February 1929, he was granted release from his Czechoslovak citizenship and then, in April, granted Austrian citizenship.[10]WhenGermanyannexed Austriain 1938, Gödel automatically became a German citizen at age 32. In 1948, afterWorld War II,at the age of 42, he became an American citizen.[11]

In his family, the young Gödel was nicknamedHerr Warum( "Mr. Why" ) because of his insatiable curiosity. According to his brother Rudolf, at the age of six or seven, Kurt suffered fromrheumatic fever;he completely recovered, but for the rest of his life he remained convinced that his heart had suffered permanent damage. Beginning at age four, Gödel suffered from "frequent episodes of poor health", which would continue for his entire life.[12]

Gödel attended theEvangelische Volksschule,a Lutheran school in Brünn from 1912 to 1916, and was enrolled in theDeutsches Staats-Realgymnasiumfrom 1916 to 1924, excelling with honors in all his subjects, particularly in mathematics, languages and religion. Although Gödel had first excelled in languages, he later became more interested in history and mathematics. His interest in mathematics increased when in 1920 his older brother Rudolf (born 1902) left forVienna,where he attended medical school at theUniversity of Vienna.During his teens, Gödel studiedGabelsberger shorthand,[13]and criticisms ofIsaac Newton,and the writings ofImmanuel Kant.[14]

Studies in Vienna

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Plaque to Gödel at 43-45Josefstädter Straße[de],Vienna,where he discovered his incompleteness theorems

At the age of 18, Gödel joined his brother at theUniversity of Vienna.He had already mastered university-level mathematics.[15]Although initially intending to studytheoretical physics,he also attended courses on mathematics and philosophy.[16]During this time, he adopted ideas ofmathematical realism.He readKant'sMetaphysische Anfangsgründe der Naturwissenschaft,and participated in theVienna CirclewithMoritz Schlick,Hans Hahn,andRudolf Carnap.Gödel then studiednumber theory,but when he took part in a seminar run byMoritz Schlickwhich studiedBertrand Russell's bookIntroduction to Mathematical Philosophy,he became interested inmathematical logic.According to Gödel, mathematical logic was "a science prior to all others, which contains the ideas and principles underlying all sciences."[17]

Attending a lecture byDavid HilbertinBolognaon completeness and consistency in mathematical systems may have set Gödel's life course. In 1928, Hilbert andWilhelm AckermannpublishedGrundzüge der theoretischen Logik(Principles of Mathematical Logic), an introduction tofirst-order logicin which the problem of completeness was posed: "Are the axioms of a formal system sufficient to derive every statement that is true in all models of the system?"[18]

This problem became the topic that Gödel chose for his doctoral work.[18]In 1929, aged 23, he completed his doctoraldissertationunder Hans Hahn's supervision. In it, he established his eponymouscompleteness theoremregardingfirst-order logic.[18]He was awarded his doctorate in 1930,[18]and his thesis (accompanied by additional work) was published by theVienna Academy of Science.

Career

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Gödel as a student in 1925

Incompleteness theorems

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Kurt Gödel's achievement in modern logic is singular and monumental—indeed it is more than a monument, it is a landmark which will remain visible far in space and time.... The subject of logic has certainly completely changed its nature and possibilities with Gödel's achievement.

— John von Neumann[19]

In 1930 Gödel attended theSecond Conference on the Epistemology of the Exact Sciences,held inKönigsberg,5–7 September. Here he delivered hisincompleteness theorems.[20]

Gödel published his incompleteness theorems inÜber formal unentscheidbare Sätze derPrincipia Mathematicaund verwandter Systeme(called in English "On Formally Undecidable Propositions of Principia Mathematica and Related Systems"). In that article, he proved for anycomputableaxiomatic systemthat is powerful enough to describe the arithmetic of thenatural numbers(e.g., thePeano axiomsorZermelo–Fraenkel set theorywith the axiom of choice), that:

  1. If a (logical or axiomatic formal)systemisomega-consistent,it cannot besyntactically complete.
  2. The consistency ofaxiomscannot be proved within their ownsystem.[21]

These theorems ended a half-century of attempts, beginning with the work of Gottlob Frege and culminating inPrincipia MathematicaandHilbert's program,to find a non-relativelyconsistent axiomatization sufficient for number theory (that was to serve as the foundation for other fields of mathematics).[22]

Gödel constructed a formula that claims it is unprovable in a given formal system. If it were provable, it would be false. Thus there will always be at least one true but unprovable statement. That is, for anycomputably enumerable setof axioms for arithmetic (that is, a set that can in principle be printed out by an idealized computer with unlimited resources), there is a formula that is true of arithmetic, but not provable in that system. To make this precise, Gödel had to produce a method to encode (as natural numbers) statements, proofs, and the concept of provability; he did this by a process known asGödel numbering.[23]

In his two-page paperZum intuitionistischen Aussagenkalkül(1932), Gödel refuted the finite-valuedness ofintuitionistic logic.In the proof, he implicitly used what has later become known asGödel–Dummett intermediate logic(orGödel fuzzy logic).[24]

Mid-1930s: further work and U.S. visits

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Gödel earned hishabilitationat Vienna in 1932, and in 1933 he became aPrivatdozent(unpaid lecturer) there. In 1933Adolf Hitlercame to power in Germany, and over the following years the Nazis rose in influence in Austria, and among Vienna's mathematicians. In June 1936,Moritz Schlick,whose seminar had aroused Gödel's interest in logic, was assassinated by one of his former students,Johann Nelböck.This triggered "a severe nervous crisis" in Gödel.[25]He developed paranoid symptoms, including a fear of being poisoned, and spent several months in a sanitarium for nervous diseases.[26]

In 1933, Gödel first traveled to the U.S., where he metAlbert Einstein,who became a good friend.[27]He delivered an address to the annual meeting of theAmerican Mathematical Society.During this year, Gödel also developed the ideas of computability andrecursive functionsto the point where he was able to present a lecture on general recursive functions and the concept of truth. This work was developed in number theory, usingGödel numbering.

In 1934, Gödel gave a series of lectures at theInstitute for Advanced Study(IAS) inPrinceton, New Jersey,titledOn undecidable propositions of formal mathematical systems.Stephen Kleene,who had just completed his PhD at Princeton, took notes of these lectures that have been subsequently published.

Gödel visited the IAS again in the autumn of 1935. The travelling and the hard work had exhausted him and the next year he took a break to recover from a depressive episode. He returned to teaching in 1937. During this time, he worked on the proof of consistency of theaxiom of choiceand of thecontinuum hypothesis;he went on to show that these hypotheses cannot be disproved from the common system of axioms of set theory.

He marriedAdele Nimbursky[es;ast](née Porkert, 1899–1981), whom he had known for over 10 years, on September 20, 1938. Gödel's parents had opposed their relationship because she was a divorced dancer, six years older than he was.

Subsequently, he left for another visit to the United States, spending the autumn of 1938 at the IAS and publishingConsistency of the axiom of choice and of the generalized continuum-hypothesis with the axioms of set theory,[28]a classic of modern mathematics. In that work he introduced theconstructible universe,a model ofset theoryin which the only sets that exist are those that can be constructed from simpler sets. Gödel showed that both theaxiom of choice(AC) and thegeneralized continuum hypothesis(GCH) are true in the constructible universe, and therefore must be consistent with theZermelo–Fraenkel axiomsfor set theory (ZF). This result has had considerable consequences for working mathematicians, as it means they can assume the axiom of choice when proving theHahn–Banach theorem.Paul Cohenlater constructed amodelof ZF in which AC and GCH are false; together these proofs mean that AC and GCH are independent of the ZF axioms for set theory.

Gödel spent the spring of 1939 at theUniversity of Notre Dame.[29]

Princeton, Einstein, U.S. citizenship

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After theAnschlusson 12 March 1938, Austria had become a part ofNazi Germany.Germany abolished the titlePrivatdozent,so Gödel had to apply for a different position under the new order. His former association with Jewish members of the Vienna Circle, especially with Hahn, weighed against him. The University of Vienna turned his application down.

His predicament intensified when the German army found him fit for conscription. World War II started in September 1939. Before the year was up, Gödel and his wife left Vienna forPrinceton.To avoid the difficulty of an Atlantic crossing, the Gödels took theTrans-Siberian Railwayto the Pacific, sailed from Japan to San Francisco (which they reached on March 4, 1940), then crossed the US by train to Princeton.[30]During this trip, Gödel was supposed to be carrying a secret letter from Viennese physicist Hans Thirring toAlbert Einsteinto alert Roosevelt of the possibility of Hitler making an atom bomb. Gödel never conveyed that letter to Einstein, although they did meet, because he was not convinced Hitler could achieve this feat.[31]In any case, Leo Szilard had already conveyed the message to Einstein, and Einstein had already warned Roosevelt.

In Princeton, Gödel accepted a position at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), which he had visited during 1933–34.[32]

Einstein was also living in Princeton during this time. Gödel and Einstein developed a strong friendship, and were known to take long walks together to and from the Institute for Advanced Study. The nature of their conversations was a mystery to the other Institute members. EconomistOskar Morgensternrecounts that toward the end of his life Einstein confided that his "own work no longer meant much, that he came to the Institute merely... to have the privilege of walking home with Gödel".[33]

Gödel and his wife, Adele, spent the summer of 1942 inBlue Hill, Maine,at the Blue Hill Inn at the top of the bay. Gödel was not merely vacationing but had a very productive summer of work. UsingHeft 15[volume 15] of Gödel's still-unpublishedArbeitshefte[working notebooks],John W. Dawson Jr.conjectures that Gödel discovered a proof for the independence of the axiom of choice from finite type theory, a weakened form of set theory, while in Blue Hill in 1942. Gödel's close friendHao Wangsupports this conjecture, noting that Gödel's Blue Hill notebooks contain his most extensive treatment of the problem.

On December 5, 1947, Einstein and Morgenstern accompanied Gödel to hisU.S. citizenshipexam, where they acted as witnesses. Gödel had confided in them that he had discovered an inconsistency in theU.S. Constitutionthat could allow the U.S. to become a dictatorship; this has since been dubbedGödel's Loophole.Einstein and Morgenstern were concerned that their friend's unpredictable behavior might jeopardize his application. The judge turned out to bePhillip Forman,who knew Einstein and had administered the oath at Einstein's own citizenship hearing. Everything went smoothly until Forman happened to ask Gödel if he thought a dictatorship like theNazi regimecould happen in the U.S. Gödel then started to explain his discovery to Forman. Forman understood what was going on, cut Gödel off, and moved the hearing on to other questions and a routine conclusion.[34][35]

Gödel became a permanent member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton in 1946. Around this time he stopped publishing, though he continued to work. He became a full professor at the Institute in 1953 and an emeritus professor in 1976.[36]

During his time at the institute, Gödel's interests turned to philosophy and physics. In 1949, he demonstrated the existence of solutions involvingclosed timelike curves,toEinstein's field equationsingeneral relativity.[37]He is said to have given this elaboration to Einstein as a present for his 70th birthday.[38]His "rotating universes" would allowtime travelto the past and caused Einstein to have doubts about his own theory. His solutions are known as theGödel metric(an exact solution of theEinstein field equation).

He studied and admired the works ofGottfried Leibniz,but came to believe that a hostile conspiracy had caused some of Leibniz's works to be suppressed.[39]To a lesser extent he studiedImmanuel KantandEdmund Husserl.In the early 1970s, Gödel circulated among his friends an elaboration of Leibniz's version ofAnselm of Canterbury'sontological proofof God's existence. This is now known asGödel's ontological proof.

Awards and honours

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Gödel was awarded (withJulian Schwinger) the firstAlbert Einstein Awardin 1951, and was also awarded theNational Medal of Science,in 1974.[40]Gödel was elected a resident member of theAmerican Philosophical Societyin 1961 and aForeign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 1968.[41][1]He was a Plenary Speaker of theICMin 1950 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[42]

Later life and death

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Gravestone of Kurt and Adele Gödel in the Princeton, N.J., cemetery

Later in his life, Gödel suffered periods ofmental instabilityand illness. Following the assassination of his close friendMoritz Schlick,[43]Gödel developed anobsessive fear of being poisoned,and would eat only food prepared by his wife Adele. Adele was hospitalized beginning in late 1977, and in her absence Gödel refused to eat;[44]he weighed 29 kilograms (65 lb) when he died of "malnutrition andinanitioncaused by personality disturbance "inPrinceton Hospitalon January 14, 1978.[45]He was buried inPrinceton Cemetery.Adele died in 1981.[46]

Religious views

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Gödel believed that God was personal,[47]and called his philosophy "rationalistic, idealistic, optimistic, and theological".[48]He formulated aformal prooffor theexistence of Godknown asGödel's ontological proof.

Gödel believed in an afterlife, saying, "Of course this supposes that there are many relationships which today's science and received wisdom haven't any inkling of. But I am convinced of this [the afterlife], independently of any theology." It is "possible today to perceive, by pure reasoning" that it "is entirely consistent with known facts." "If the world is rationally constructed and has meaning, then there must be such a thing [as an afterlife]."[49]

In an unmailed answer to a questionnaire, Gödel described his religion as "baptized Lutheran (but not member of any religious congregation). My belief istheistic,notpantheistic,followingLeibnizrather thanSpinoza."[50]Of religion(s) in general, he said: "Religions are for the most part bad, but not religion itself."[51]According to his wife Adele, "Gödel, although he did not go to church, was religious and read the Bible in bed every Sunday morning",[52]while ofIslam,he said, "I like Islam: it is a consistent [or consequential] idea of religion and open-minded."[53]

Legacy

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Douglas Hofstadterwrote the 1979 bookGödel, Escher, Bachto celebrate the work and ideas of Gödel,M. C. EscherandJohann Sebastian Bach.It partly explores the ramifications of the fact that Gödel's incompleteness theorem can be applied to anyTuring-completecomputational system, which may include thehuman brain.In 2005John Dawsonpublished a biography,Logical Dilemmas: The Life and Work of Kurt Gödel.[54]Stephen Budiansky's book about Gödel's life,Journey to the Edge of Reason: The Life of Kurt Gödel,[55]was aNew York TimesCritics' Top Book of 2021.[56]Gödel was one of four mathematicians examined inDavid Malone's 2008BBCdocumentaryDangerous Knowledge.[57]

TheKurt Gödel Society,founded in 1987, is an international organization for the promotion of research in logic, philosophy, and thehistory of mathematics.TheUniversity of Viennahosts the Kurt Gödel Research Center for Mathematical Logic. TheAssociation for Symbolic Logichas held an annualGödel Lecturesince 1990. TheGödel Prizeis given annually to an outstanding paper in theoretical computer science. Gödel's philosophical notebooks[58]are preserved at the Kurt Gödel Research Centre at theBerlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities.[59]Five volumes of Gödel's collected works have been published. The first two include his publications; the third includes unpublished manuscripts from hisNachlass,and the final two include correspondence.

In the 1994 filmI.Q.,Lou Jacobiportrays Gödel. In the 2023 movieOppenheimer,Gödel, played byJames Urbaniak,briefly appears walking with Einstein in the gardens of Princeton.

Bibliography

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Important publications

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In German:

  • 1930, "Die Vollständigkeit der Axiome des logischen Funktionenkalküls."Monatshefte für Mathematik und Physik37:349–60.
  • 1931, "Über formal unentscheidbare Sätze derPrincipia Mathematicaund verwandter Systeme, I. "Monatshefte für Mathematik und Physik38:173–98.
  • 1932, "Zum intuitionistischen Aussagenkalkül",Anzeiger Akademie der Wissenschaften Wien69:65–66.

In English:

In English translation:

  • Kurt Gödel, 1992.On Formally Undecidable Propositions Of Principia Mathematica And Related Systems,tr. B. Meltzer, with a comprehensive introduction byRichard Braithwaite.Dover reprint of the 1962 Basic Books edition.
  • Kurt Gödel, 2000.[60]On Formally Undecidable Propositions Of Principia Mathematica And Related Systems,tr. Martin Hirzel
  • Jean van Heijenoort,1967.A Source Book in Mathematical Logic, 1879–1931.Harvard Univ. Press.
  • Collected Works:Oxford University Press: New York. Editor-in-chief:Solomon Feferman.
    • Volume I: Publications 1929–1936ISBN978-0-19-503964-1/ Paperback:ISBN978-0-19-514720-9,
    • Volume II: Publications 1938–1974ISBN978-0-19-503972-6/ Paperback:ISBN978-0-19-514721-6,
    • Volume III: Unpublished Essays and LecturesISBN978-0-19-507255-6/ Paperback:ISBN978-0-19-514722-3,
    • Volume IV: Correspondence, A–GISBN978-0-19-850073-5,
    • Volume V: Correspondence, H–ZISBN978-0-19-850075-9.
  • Philosophische Notizbücher / Philosophical Notebooks:De Gruyter: Berlin/München/Boston. Editor:Eva-Maria Engelen[de].

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^abKreisel, G.(1980). "Kurt Godel. 28 April 1906–14 January 1978".Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society.26:148–224.doi:10.1098/rsbm.1980.0005.S2CID120119270.
  2. ^"Gödel".Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary.Merriam-Webster.
  3. ^abFor instance, in their "Principia Mathematica"(Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophyedition).
  4. ^Smullyan, R. M. (1992). Gödel's Incompleteness Theorems. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, ch. V.
  5. ^Smullyan, R. M. (1992). Gödel's Incompleteness Theorems. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, ch. IX.
  6. ^Dawson 1997, pp. 3–4.
  7. ^Dawson 1997, p. 12
  8. ^Procházka 2008, pp. 30–34.
  9. ^Dawson 1997, p. 15.
  10. ^Gödel, Kurt (1986).Collected works.Feferman, Solomon. Oxford. p. 37.ISBN0-19-503964-5.OCLC12371326.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  11. ^Balaguer, Mark."Kurt Godel".Britannica School High.Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.RetrievedJune 3,2019.
  12. ^Kim, Alan (January 1, 2015). Zalta, Edward N. (ed.).Johann Friedrich Herbart(Winter 2015 ed.). Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University.
  13. ^"Gabelsberger stenography | Gödel Enigma | University of Helsinki".www.helsinki.fi.
  14. ^Parsons, Charles (2010). "Gödel and philosophical idealism".Philosophia Mathematica.Series III.18(2): 166–192.doi:10.1093/philmat/nkq001.MR2669137.
  15. ^Dawson 1997, p. 24.
  16. ^At the University of Vienna, Gödel attended mathematics and philosophy courses side by side withHermann Broch,who was in his early forties. See:Sigmund, Karl;Dawson Jr., John W.;Mühlberger, Kurt (2007).Kurt Kurt Gödel: Das Album.Springer-Verlag. p. 27.ISBN978-3-8348-0173-9.
  17. ^Gleick, J. (2011)The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood,London, Fourth Estate, p. 181.
  18. ^abcdIn the Scope of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science.11th International Congress of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science, Cracow, August 1999. Vol. 1. 2002. p. 291.
  19. ^Halmos, P.R. (April 1973). "The Legend of von Neumann".The American Mathematical Monthly.80(4): 382–94.doi:10.1080/00029890.1973.11993293.
  20. ^Stadler, Friedrich (2015).The Vienna Circle: Studies in the Origins, Development, and Influence of Logical Empiricism.Springer.ISBN978-3-319-16561-5.
  21. ^Dawson 1997,pp. 61–63.
  22. ^Nagel, Ernest(2001).Gödel's Proof.New York University Press. pp. 85–87.
  23. ^Raatikainen, Panu (2015).Gödel's Incompleteness Theorems.Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
  24. ^Troelstra, A. S. (1988).Constructivism in Mathematics: An Introduction.Vol. 1. North-Holland. pp. 64–66.
  25. ^Casti, John L.; Depauli, Werner (2001).Godel: A Life Of Logic, The Mind, And Mathematics.Cambridge, Mass.: Basic Books.ISBN978-0-7382-0518-2..From p. 80, which quotes Rudolf Gödel, Kurt's brother and a medical doctor. The words "a severe nervous crisis", and the judgement that the Schlick assassination was its trigger, are from the Rudolf Gödel quote. Rudolf knew Kurt well in those years.
  26. ^Dawson 1997, pp. 110–12
  27. ^Hutchinson Encyclopedia(1988), p. 518
  28. ^Gödel, Kurt (November 9, 1938)."The Consistency of the Axiom of Choice and of the Generalized Continuum-Hypothesis".Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.24(12): 556–57.Bibcode:1938PNAS...24..556G.doi:10.1073/pnas.24.12.556.ISSN0027-8424.PMC1077160.PMID16577857.
  29. ^Dawson, John W. Jr."Kurt Gödel at Notre Dame"(PDF).p. 4.the Mathematics department at the University of Notre Dame was host... for a single semester in the spring of 1939 [to] Kurt Gödel
  30. ^Dawson Jr, John W (October 2002)."Max Dehn, Kurt Gödel, and the Trans-Siberian Escape Route"(PDF).Notices of the American Mathematical Society.49(9): 1068–1075.
  31. ^Sigmund K (March 2024)."The spy who flunked it: Kurt Gödel's forgotten part in the atom-bomb story".Nature.627(8002): 26–28.doi:10.1038/d41586-024-00644-1.PMID38438543.
  32. ^"Kurt Gödel".Institute for Advanced Study.December 9, 2019.
  33. ^Goldstein 2005,p.33
  34. ^Dawson 1997, pp. 179–80. The story of Gödel's citizenship hearing is repeated in many versions. Dawson's account is the most carefully researched, but was written before the rediscovery of Morgenstern's written account. Most other accounts appear to be based on Dawson, hearsay or speculation.
  35. ^Oskar Morgenstern (September 13, 1971)."History of the Naturalization of Kurt Gödel"(PDF).RetrievedApril 16,2019.
  36. ^"Kurt Gödel – Institute for Advanced Study".RetrievedDecember 1,2015.
  37. ^Gödel, Kurt (July 1, 1949)."An Example of a New Type of Cosmological Solutions of Einstein's Field Equations of Gravitation".Rev. Mod. Phys.21(447): 447–450.Bibcode:1949RvMP...21..447G.doi:10.1103/RevModPhys.21.447.
  38. ^"Das Genie & der Wahnsinn".Der Tagesspiegel(in German). January 13, 2008.
  39. ^Dawson, John W. Jr. (2005).Logical Dilemmas: The Life and Work of Kurt Gödel.A K Peters. p. 166.ISBN978-1-56881-256-4.
  40. ^"The President's National Medal of Science: Recipient Details | NSF – National Science Foundation".www.nsf.gov.RetrievedSeptember 17,2016.
  41. ^"APS Member History".search.amphilsoc.org.RetrievedJanuary 28,2021.
  42. ^Gödel, Kurt (1950)."Rotating universes in general relativity theory"(PDF).In:Proceedings of the International Congress of Mathematicians, Cambridge, Massachusetts, August 30–September 6, 1950.Vol. 1. pp. 175–81. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on December 28, 2013.RetrievedDecember 4,2017.
  43. ^"Tragic deaths in science: Kurt Gödel - looking over the edge of reason - Paperpile".
  44. ^Davis, Martin (May 4, 2005)."Gödel's universe".Nature.435(7038): 19–20.Bibcode:2005Natur.435...19D.doi:10.1038/435019a.
  45. ^Toates, Frederick; Olga Coschug Toates (2002).Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: Practical Tried-and-Tested Strategies to Overcome OCD.Class Publishing. p. 221.ISBN978-1-85959-069-0.
  46. ^Dawson, John W.(June 1, 2006)."Gödel and the limits of logic".Plus.University of Cambridge.RetrievedNovember 1,2020.
  47. ^Tucker McElroy (2005).A to Z of Mathematicians.Infobase Publishing. p.118.ISBN978-0-8160-5338-4.Gödel had a happy childhood, and was called 'Mr. Why' by his family, due to his numerous questions. He was baptized as a Lutheran, and re-mained a theist (a believer in a personal God) throughout his life.
  48. ^Wang 1996,p.8.
  49. ^Wang 1996,p. 104-105.
  50. ^Gödel's answer to a special questionnaire sent him by the sociologist Burke Grandjean. This answer is quoted directly inWang 1987,p.18,and indirectly inWang 1996,p. 112. It's also quoted directly inDawson 1997,p. 6, who citesWang 1987.The Grandjean questionnaire is perhaps the most extended autobiographical item in Gödel's papers. Gödel filled it out in pencil and wrote a cover letter, but he never returned it. "Theistic" is italicized in bothWang 1987andWang 1996.It is possible that this italicization is Wang's and not Gödel's. The quote followsWang 1987,with two corrections taken fromWang 1996.Wang 1987reads "Baptist Lutheran" whereWang 1996has "baptized Lutheran".Wang 1987has "rel. cong.", which inWang 1996is expanded to "religious congregation".
  51. ^Gödel, Kurt (2003)."Marianne Gödel".InFeferman, Solomon;Dawson, John W. (eds.).Kurt Gödel: Collected Works: Volume IV.OUP Oxford. p. 425.doi:10.1093/oso/9780198500735.003.0018.ISBN978-0-19-968961-3.Godel was not unmoved by religious concerns. On the contrary, his library included many books and tracts devoted to various religious sects; among his notebooks are two devoted to theology; and in a shorthand manuscript found in hisNachlaßhe remarked that "Die Religionen sind zum größten Teil schlecht, aber nicht die Religion." ( "Religions are for the most part bad, but not religion itself." )
  52. ^Wang 1996,p. 51.
  53. ^Wang 1996,p. 148, 4.4.3. It is one of Gödel's observations, made between 16 November and 7 December 1975, which Wang found hard to classify under the main topics considered elsewhere in the book.
  54. ^A. K. Peters,Wellesley, MA,ISBN1-56881-256-6
  55. ^W. W. Norton & Company,New York City,ISBN978-0-393-35820-9
  56. ^"Times Critics' Top Books of 2021".The New York Times.December 15, 2021.RetrievedJuly 5,2022.
  57. ^"Dangerous Knowledge".BBC.June 11, 2008.RetrievedOctober 6,2009.
  58. ^"Kurt-Gödel-Forschungsstelle: die" Philosophischen Bemerkungen "Kurt Gödels (Kurt Gödel Research Centre: The 'Philosophical Remarks' of Kurt Gödel) – Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities".www.bbaw.de.
  59. ^"The Academy – Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities".www.bbaw.de.
  60. ^Kurt Godel (1931)."Über formal unentscheidbare Sätze der Principia Mathematica und verwandter Systeme, I"[On formally undecidable propositions of Principia Mathematica and related systems I](PDF).Monatshefte für Mathematik und Physik.38:173–98.doi:10.1007/BF01700692.S2CID197663120.

References

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Further reading

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