Wang, H. A logical journey : from Gödel to philosophy

Hao Wang. A logical journey: from Gödel to philosophy Series: Representation and mind Hao Wang (1921-1995) was one of the few confidants of the great mathematician and logician Kurt Gödel. A Logical Journey is a continuation of Wang\u27s Reflections on Gödel and also elaborates on discussions contained in From Mathematics to Philosophy. A decade in preparation, it contains important and unfamiliar insights into Gödel\u27s views on a wide range of issues, from Platonism and the nature of logic to minds and machines, the existence of God, and positivism and phenomenology. The impact of Gödel\u27s theorem on twentieth-century thought is on par with that of Einstein\u27s theory of relativity, Heisenberg\u27s uncertainty principle, or Keynesian economics. These previously unpublished intimate and informal conversations, however, bring to light and amplify Gödel\u27s other major contributions to logic and philosophy. They reveal that there is much more in Gödel\u27s philosophy of mathematics than is commonly believed, and more in his philosophy than his philosophy of mathematics. Wang writes that it is even possible that his quite informal and loosely structured conversations with me, which I am freely using in this book, will turn out to be the fullest existing expression of the diverse components of his inadequately articulated general philosophy. The first two chapters are devoted to Gödel\u27s life and mental development. In the chapters that follow, Wang illustrates the quest for overarching solutions and grand unification of knowledge and action in Gödel\u27s written speculations on God and an afterlife. He gives the background and a chronological summary of the conversations considers Gödel\u27s comments on philosophies and philosophers (his support of Husserl\u27s phenomenology and his digressions on Kant and Wittgenstein), and his attempt to demonstrate the superiority of the mind\u27s power over brains and machines. Three chapters are tied together by what Wang perceives to be Gödel\u27s governing ideal of philosophy: an exact theory in which mathematics and Newtonian physics serve as a model for philosophy or metaphysics. Finally, in an epilog, Wang sketches his own approach to philosophy in contrast to his interpretation of Gödel\u27s outlook.https://digitalcommons.rockefeller.edu/ru-authors/1171/thumbnail.jp