Chapters from Gödel's Unfinished Book on Foundational Research in Mathematics

This volume contains English translations of Gödel's chapters on logicism and the antinomies and on the calculi of pure logic, as well as outlines for a chapter on metamathematics. It also comprises most of his reading notes.

This book is a testimony to Gödel's understanding of the situation of foundational research in mathematics after his great discovery, the incompleteness theorem of 1931. It is also a source for his views on his logical predecessors, from Leibniz, Frege, and Russell to his own times. Gödel's "own book on foundations," as he called it, is essential reading for logicians and philosophers interested in foundations. Furthermore, it opens a new chapter to the life and achievement of one of the icons of 20th century science and philosophy.

Based on the recent discovery of Gödel's work on an ``own book on foundations,'' completely unknown so far Reconstruction of Gödel's unpublished work by one of the leading Gödel experts in the scientific community A milestone in Gödel research and in the related foundational debate

Autorentext

Jan von Plato is professor of philosophy at the University of Helsinki. He has written several books on proof theory and the development of logic, including Elements of Logical Reasoning and The Great Formal Machinery Works. His series of books on Gödel began in 2020 with Can Mathematics Be Proved Consistent? Portrait of Young Gödel is the fifth book in this series.

Inhalt

Preface.- Dedication.- Part I: Gödel's Own Book on Foundations.- Chapter 1. A Gödel puzzle.- Chapter 2. The Ergebnisse book project.- Chapter 3. Gödel's reading of the logical literature.- Chapter 4. Gödel's manuscript for the Ergebnisse book series.- Part II: Own Book (Foundations).- Chapter 5. Introduction.- Chapter 6. Logicism.- Chapter 7. Antinomies.- Chapter 8. Clear version, from the beginning to the antinomies.- Chapter 9. The epistemological standpoint of the logicists.- Chapter 10. Logical calculus.- Chapter 11. Metamathematics.- Chapter 12. General metamathematics (Princeton).- Part III: Gödel's Reading Notes.- Chapter 13. Editorial remarks.- Chapter 14. The untitled notebook.- Chapter 15. The Altes Excerptenheft.- References.- Index.