Re: virus: To S.G. re: his Jesus predicament

Eric Boyd (6ceb3@qlink.queensu.ca)
Tue, 26 Jan 1999 14:20:35 -0500

Hi,

Eric Boyd:

<<
try Godel's paper on Incompleteness.
>>

Sorry, I forgot the link:

http://www.ddc.net/ygg/etext/godel/

<<
On a meta note, I have said before that Godel's proof itself only proves that logical systems cannot refer to (or totally explain) themselves -- It is the logic equivalent of a man saying "I always lie"
>>

That's not quite right, actually. Godel's proof, on further thought, is more like a man saying "*I* cannot consistently assert the truth of this statement". If the man does assert it, the statement is false, and he lied. Therefore he cannot consistently assert the truth of the statement, and *therefore* the statement is true. Therefore there exists a truth that the man cannot assert, and therefore his group of truths has a "hole". As I said, it is a trivial hole, but a hole non-the-less.

So, my conclusion is that logical systems are no worse off than our own human abilities, and this is certainly not a good reason to jump off the logic band wagon...

ERiC