Re: THIS STATEMENT HAS NO PROOF IN ANY SYSTEM = true or false?

tchow_at_lsa.umich.edu
Date: 01/17/05 

Date: 17 Jan 2005 03:09:22 GMT

In article <34pgh8F4dp4aoU1@news.dfncis.de>,
Mitch Harris <harrisq@tcs.inf.tu-dresden.de> wrote:
>Somehow, this seems unfair. How do we know "sqrt(2) is irrational" is
>true? By a proof in, say, ZFC. You might then wonder how we know that
>-that- (*) is true, (leading to the regress) but that is not the same
>as the knowing the basic statement is true.

I was talking about what "sqrt(2) is irrational" *means*, which is quite
different from asking whether it is *true*. See elsewhere for my response
to your attempt to say that meaning depends on whether or not something has
been proved. 

-- 
Tim Chow       tchow-at-alum-dot-mit-dot-edu
The range of our projectiles---even ... the artillery---however great, will
never exceed four of those miles of which as many thousand separate us from
the center of the earth.  ---Galileo, Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences

Relevant Pages