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Yourgrau P. A world without time.. the forgotten legacy of Goedel and Einstein (Basic Books, 2005)(ISBN 0465092934)(176s)_PPop_

Yourgrau P. A world without time.. the forgotten legacy of Goedel and Einstein (Basic Books, 2005)(ISBN 0465092934)(176s)_PPop_

Yourgrau P. A world without time.. the forgotten legacy of Goedel and Einstein (Basic Books, 2005)(ISBN 0465092934)(176s)_PPop_

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<strong>of</strong> Godel's advisor, Hahn, also became a good friend <strong>of</strong> Godel's, inviting him to participate<br />

inó <strong>and</strong> eventually edit <strong>the</strong> proceedings <strong>of</strong>ó<strong>the</strong> ma<strong>the</strong>matical colloquium<br />

he founded. The most organized <strong>and</strong> regular philosophical interactions, however, between<br />

Godel <strong>and</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r minds were doubtless <strong>the</strong> weekly discussions conducted in Schlick's Vienna<br />

Circle, <strong>of</strong> which he became a regular member in 1926, having been introduced into <strong>the</strong><br />

circle by Hahn.<br />

Godel's Vienna was a city <strong>of</strong> c<strong>of</strong>feehouses, each devoted to a particular intellectual<br />

<strong>the</strong>meóthose with white table tops, convenient for writing formulas, being especially<br />

favored by ma<strong>the</strong>maticiansóas well as <strong>of</strong> intellectual circles, especially philosophical ones.<br />

The <strong>the</strong>me <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Vienna Circle was logical positivism. Though a guest in <strong>the</strong> house <strong>of</strong><br />

Schlick, Godel was hardly enamored <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> circle's credo <strong>of</strong> positivism, nor <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> hero <strong>of</strong><br />

this cult, Ludwig Wittgenstein. The bible <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Vienna Circle was Wittgenstein's Tractatus<br />

(Tractatus Logico-Pbilosophicus was <strong>the</strong> full title, suggested by Wittgenstein's friend <strong>and</strong><br />

former teacher, G. E. Moore, emulating Spinoza's Tractatus Tbeo-logico-Politicus),<br />

completed while <strong>the</strong> author was a prisoner <strong>of</strong> war. But Wittgenstein's true war, like that <strong>of</strong><br />

<strong>the</strong> Vienna Circle, was not against <strong>the</strong> Allies but against metaphysics. Positivism, a<br />

particularly severe br<strong>and</strong> <strong>of</strong> intellectual minimalismóa spirit that thrived in Godel's<br />

Viennaóis an antiphilosophical philosophy dedicated to <strong>the</strong> belief that most <strong>of</strong> what has<br />

passed for deep metaphysical thinking over <strong>the</strong> centuries is nothing more than confusion<br />

based on an inadequate underst<strong>and</strong>ing <strong>of</strong> language, which, through artifice, leads <strong>the</strong> mind<br />

by <strong>the</strong> nose in all <strong>the</strong> wrong directions.<br />

Godel did not share <strong>the</strong> positivist credo that philosophy begins <strong>and</strong> ends with an analysis <strong>of</strong><br />

language <strong>and</strong> its limitations, nor Wittgenstein-ian's doctrine that <strong>the</strong> subject matter <strong>of</strong><br />

traditional philosophy, as opposed to that <strong>of</strong> physical science, is precisely that which<br />

cannot be expressed in language. He had no sympathy for <strong>the</strong> famous line with which <strong>the</strong><br />

Tractatus concludes, that "what we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence," as<br />

shown in a reminiscence by Menger after <strong>the</strong> two had attended a session <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Vienna<br />

Circle: "Today we . . . out-Wittgensteined <strong>the</strong>se Wittgensteinians; we kept silent."<br />

Apparently, Godel <strong>and</strong> Wittgenstein never met, though Godel said that he<br />

29<br />

saw him once, when both attended a lecture in Vienna by <strong>the</strong> Dutch anti-Platonist,<br />

"intuitionist" ma<strong>the</strong>matician, L.E. J. Brouwer.<br />

In <strong>the</strong> meetings <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Vienna Circle, Godel rarely spoke, signaling his agreement or<br />

disagreement only by a slight inclination <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> head. Participation in <strong>the</strong>se meetings was<br />

by invitation only, <strong>and</strong> membership hovered between ten <strong>and</strong> twenty. The regular<br />

participants included Schlick <strong>and</strong> Carnap, <strong>the</strong> philosophers Carl Hempel, Otto Neu-rath,<br />

Friedrich Waismann <strong>and</strong> Feigl, <strong>and</strong> finally, Menger, Hahn <strong>and</strong> Godel. Conspicuous by <strong>the</strong>ir<br />

absence were <strong>the</strong> philosophers Popper <strong>and</strong> Wittgenstein, <strong>the</strong> former because he had not<br />

been invited due to his views about <strong>the</strong> latter, <strong>the</strong> latter because he had declined <strong>the</strong><br />

invitation. The meetings took place in a dingy room filled with rows <strong>of</strong> chairs <strong>and</strong> long

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