Re: What does G?del's Incompleteness mean for the Working Mathematician?

Pierre Asselin wrote:

>> Surely it is normal usage to say that theorems in a formal system
>> are true?
>
> Nope.
>
> (Or rather: yes, but only when they really are true.)

Normal people do not say,
"Is the statement that every number is the sum of 4 squares provable?"
They say "Is it true that ..."

You have probably spent too much time among logicians.

--
Timothy Murphy
e-mail (<80k only): tim /at/ birdsnest.maths.tcd.ie
tel: +353-86-2336090, +353-1-2842366
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland
.

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