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    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
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Mechanism, Mentalism and Metamathematics: An Essay on Finitism

Mechanism, Mentalism and Metamathematics: An Essay on Finitism

Webb, J.

Hardcover

Series: Synthese Library, Book 137

PhilosophyHistory & Philosophy of Science

ISBN10: 9027710465
ISBN13: 9789027710468
Publisher: Springer Nature
Published: Oct 31 1980
Pages: 285
Weight: 1.33
Height: 0.69 Width: 6.14 Depth: 9.21
Language: English
This book grew out of a graduate student paper [261] in which I set down some criticisms of J. R. Lucas' attempt to refute mechanism by means of G6del's theorem. I had made several such abortive attempts myself and had become familiar with their pitfalls, and especially with the double- edged nature of incompleteness arguments. My original idea was to model the refutation of mechanism on the almost universally accepted G6delian refutation of Hilbert's formalism, but I kept getting stuck on questions of mathematical philosophy which I found myself having to beg. A thorough study of the foundational works of Hilbert and Bernays finally convinced me that I had all too naively and uncritically bought this refutation of formalism. I did indeed discover points of surprisingly close contact between formalism and mechanism, but also that it was possible to under- mine certain strong arguments against these positions precisely by invok- ing G6del's and related work. I also began to realize that the Church- Turing thesis itself is the principal bastion protecting mechanism, and that G6del's work was perhaps the best thing that ever happened to both mechanism and formalism. I pushed these lines of argument in my dis- sertation with the patient help of my readers, Raymond Nelson and Howard Stein. I would especially like to thank the latter for many valuable criticisms of my dissertation as well as some helpful suggestions for reor- ganizing it in the direction of the present book.

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