3 ms·

The problem with Godel and friends is that they point to the limits of rationality. Without a transcendent rationality (and morality) upon which to discurse, p

The problem with Godel and friends is that they point to the limits of rationality. Without a transcendent rationality (and morality) upon which to discurse, philosophers are out of a job, so to speak. If you use logic to understand everything, the last thing you want to deal with is somebody telling you the limits to logic. So they blow him off. At least I think the above is true for "analytic" philosophers. The "continentals", on the other hand, have been engaging in an extended attack on transcendent rationality since Nietszche who said, to paraphrase, that every transcendent metaphysics was an attempt to justify a morality, and every morality was facilitated a (usually inarticulate) "will to power." (This line sort of starts with Hegel, who posited that rationality emerged from history and the development of a collective human spirit, but wasn't "out there" before that). Godel seems like ammunition for these guys, but I don't think they have picked him up much. I guess if you are anti-rationalist, the last thing you read up on is advanced logic, even if it is so advanced it comes to its own frontier.

joe_the_user 15y ago
I believe Alain Badiou might be an exception here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alain_Badiou http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alain_Badiou
- mjsergey 15y ago
  The book "The Mathematics of Novelty" seems like a pretty good introduction to Badiou. As with most non-fiction published by re.press it is creative commons: http://re-press.org/books/the-mathematics-of-novelty-badiou%E2%80%99s-minimalist-metaphysics/ http://re-press.org/books/the-mathematics-of-novelty-badiou%....
ubernostrum 15y ago
Um, OK. There's a lot wrong here. For starters, philosophers are plenty comfortable with the limits of rationality, and were poking at that long before Gödel came along. Similarly, "using logic to understand everything" is a pretty sweeping generalization, and one which quite likely commits an equivocation the way you're trying to use it. As for analytic philosophy, well, you seem to have a lot of misconceptions about what exactly that means. Analytic philosophy's certainly done its fair share of dumb things, but blowing off Gödel for showing "the limits to logic"? Not sure where you get that one from; for the most part, analytic philosophers have been spending the last century or so on things like the problem of demarcation; Gödel's work with respect to formal systems is basically irrelevant to that and to plenty of other things philosophers spend their time on.

joe_the_user 15y ago

I believe Alain Badiou might be an exception here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alain_Badiou http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alain_Badiou

mjsergey 15y ago
The book "The Mathematics of Novelty" seems like a pretty good introduction to Badiou. As with most non-fiction published by re.press it is creative commons: http://re-press.org/books/the-mathematics-of-novelty-badiou%E2%80%99s-minimalist-metaphysics/ http://re-press.org/books/the-mathematics-of-novelty-badiou%....

ubernostrum 15y ago

Um, OK. There's a lot wrong here. For starters, philosophers are plenty comfortable with the limits of rationality, and were poking at that long before Gödel came along. Similarly, "using logic to understand everything" is a pretty sweeping generalization, and one which quite likely commits an equivocation the way you're trying to use it. As for analytic philosophy, well, you seem to have a lot of misconceptions about what exactly that means. Analytic philosophy's certainly done its fair share of dumb things, but blowing off Gödel for showing "the limits to logic"? Not sure where you get that one from; for the most part, analytic philosophers have been spending the last century or so on things like the problem of demarcation; Gödel's work with respect to formal systems is basically irrelevant to that and to plenty of other things philosophers spend their time on.