X-Message-Number: 4120
Date: Sat, 1 Apr 95 11:12:55 EST
From:  (Perry E. Metzger)
Subject: liar's paradox

Bob Ettinger doesn't believe in incompleteness theorems because the
set theory paradoxes he's seen seem "impermissable" to
him. Unfortunately, in the formal system equivalents of these
paradoxes there are no rules of construction that say that the paradox
cannot be phrased -- they are well formed strings in the formal
systems.

I'll give him one that he'll have harder trouble with. The paradox
that is the core of Goedel's theorem, phrased in english, is
approximately this: "This construct is true but cannot be proven to be
true using the formal system of which it is a part."

.pm


Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=4120