Remix.run Logo
gumby 4 hours ago

You mean you don’t have a framed, signed, bug-bounty cheque from Alfred North Whitehead on your wall??

More seriously, there is indeed a huge logical error at the heart of the whole enterprise but it was not discovered until much later by Kurt Gödel.

steppi 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

This is commonly believed, but Gödel didn't identify a logical error at the heart of the whole enterprise, he proved astonishing theorems revealing limitations of any sufficiently powerful formal system. One can kind of think of the Principia as a science experiment to find the extent to which known mathematics could be proven from foundational axioms that could be thought of as "laws of logic". To make their system work, Russell and Whitehead themselves had to add extralogical axioms, such as their Axiom of Reducibility [0] and the Axiom of Infinity, giving empirical evidence (but not a proof) that "laws of logic" alone were not enough. They were also aware of limitations in their own system, such as the inability to define the cardinal $\aleph_\omega$ [1].

Like the article says, what they did was ahead-of-its-time, and a monumental influence on all subsequent work on formal systems, including Gödel's work, regardless of whether Russell and Whitehead achieved their initial aims.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axiom_of_reducibility [1] https://www.gutenberg.org/files/78255/78255-h/78255-h.htm#Pa...

jibal a minute ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Utter nonsense ... there is no known logical error in PM. Gödel proved that Russell and Whitehead's goal was unachievable but that's a totally different matter.

OTOH, Russell found a logical error at the heart of Frege's work, and PM fixed it by introducing the theory of types.

voxadam 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

>there is indeed a huge logical error at the heart of the whole enterprise but it was not discovered until much later by Kurt Gödel.

Which leads us to our next borderline impenetrable book, Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter.

m-hodges 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I read GEB cover to cover and haven’t stopped thinking about it for years. Not a brag, a nudge that it’s not impenetrable and more people should read it.

eru an hour ago | parent | next [-]

I read it cover to cove back in the day and enjoyed it. But I'm not sure more people should read it today.

If they do and enjoy it, good for them! But many parts haven't aged all that well.

However, I can still very warmly recommend 'The Pleasures of Counting' to this very day.

buildsjets 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I’m working on it every day during lunch break. Good old hardcopy.

anthonygd 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I read it on my honeymoon 25 years ago. That book sticks with you.

debo_ an hour ago | parent [-]

Are you still married?

bryanrasmussen 20 minutes ago | parent [-]

finally we shall be able to answer the age old question - does Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid stick with you better than a spouse!

voxadam 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

It's been years since I cracked open a copy, maybe I should give it another shot.

floxy 2 hours ago | parent [-]

If you want to get to the meat of the issue, without the extraneous stuff, you might also tackle: Godel's Theorem Simplified.

https://www.amazon.com/Godels-Theorem-Simplified-Harry-Gensl...

scubbo 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I'm surprised to hear that that was your perspective! I felt that it dealt with otherwise-opaque topics in a very approachable way.

analog31 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

GEB was one of the books that inspired me to study math in college. It made math come to life in way that my high school courses didn't.

annzabelle 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

My brother's favorite book in 6th grade was Godel, Escher, Bach.

Why, yes, he works as a compiler engineer.

eru an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Eh, that's just a pop-science tome. Nothing impenetrable about it.

4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]
[deleted]
suslik 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter.

I gave that book to my mathematician grandma, and she found it so boring she couldn’t finish it - “All this stuff was known for decades”. True anecdote.

eru an hour ago | parent [-]

Well, it's a pop-sci tome, not a research article.

However, it is pretty dated these days.

robobro an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

That's not how to spell Ludwig Wittgenstein!

steppi 43 minutes ago | parent [-]

Wittgenstein didn't find logical flaws in the Principia and deeply admired it. He found flaws in Russell's follow up work on Epistemology, "The Theory of Knowledge."

4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]
[deleted]