Mark Stahlman (via RadioMail) on Wed, 9 Jul 1997 18:49:59 +0200 (MET DST) |
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Re: <nettime> Goedel - a nomadic case study |
Folks: I'll look forward to reading the book and its protrait of Goedel's life, motivations and relationships. Kurt Goedel's work is one of those milestones in the history of philosophy that is all too often ignored or, when it's impossible to ignore, (deliberately?) misused. To call him the greatest logician since Aristotle is most likely offered out of the greatest irony. Aristotle (Plato's pupil and Alexander the Great's tutor) attempted throughout his life to undue the greatest work of his teacher. Plato taught that logic was never sufficient in human affairs. His "Simile of the Divided Line" (The Republic, Book VI) specifically relegates logic to the inferior role in the realm of the intelligible. Above and subsuming logic was what Plato described as "Understanding" and, in particular, he emphasised the need for the understanding of the Good. Goedel's work pulls the rug out from underneath all the Aristoteleans. The English Ideologues are Aristoteleans -- as demonstrated by their fervent effort to separate reason (logic) from faith (understanding) just as Aristotle did. Studied Irrationalists are Aristoteleans -- whether of the Frankfurt or the Heidegger variety. Religious fundamentalists are also Aristoteleans -- as evidenced by their adherence to such Aristoteleans as Aquinas (in the Catholic case) or Maimonides (in the Jewish case), and so on. The priests and the anti-priests all have a vested interest in burying access and even denying the existence of Understanding. This is the fundamental basis of their Yin-Yang alliance throughout time. There seem to have been two priciple reactions to Goedel's work among those who have taken it seriously. One school opted to abandon philosophy on the view that Aristotle had been overthrown and therefore philosophy had been undone and could now be discarded. The other school sought to rediscover the philosophy which comprehended the defeat of Aristotle and went far beyond Aristotle -- in the only direction to go, towards Plato. Needless to say, I seem to belong to that second school. It will be fascinating to see how well these issues are understood by the author of this biography and, in turn, given the context of his life, how Goedel himself proceeded from his own critical discovery. Mark Stahlman New Media Associates New York City newmedia@mcimail.com --- # distributed via nettime-l : no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a closed moderated mailinglist for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@icf.de and "info nettime" in the msg body # URL: http://www.desk.nl/~nettime/ contact: nettime-owner@icf.de