Gödel's Theorem
For some reason it&#x27;s fashionable to bash philosophical implications of Gödel&#x27;s Theorem(s). Not only is the internet filled with articles like this, there is at least one book dedicated to bashing on philosophical implications of the theorem, the one by Torkel Franzen (whose most notable work is that book).<p>I find this sort of allergic reaction to be interesting in its own right. Yes, there are pseudointellectuals who abuse the theorem, but they&#x27;re just that, pseudointellectuals, and academics usually don&#x27;t engage with pseudointellectuals. I suppose the situation is similar with Aaronson&#x27;s despair at the layperson&#x27;s misunderstanding of quantum computers, but so far as I can tell Godel&#x27;s theorem is virtually unknown among the masses, in any case much, much less known than quantum mechanics. So it&#x27;s interesting why academics feel the need to have this sort of allergic reaction - in the case of quantum mechanics it&#x27;s more understandable.<p>So the more interesting because Godel, the man himself, was preoccupied with philosophical implications of his theorem. This is the man who &quot;proved&quot; God&#x27;s existence with modal logic, the man who spent decades after publishing his most famous theorems in a dusty study writing philosophical (and extremely rigorous) implications of his theorems that hardly anyone read, the man who eventually starved to death because he thought - his philosophy led him to believe - he was being poisoned.<p>In fact, Godel&#x27;s theorem ought to be used more, not less, in philosophy. Some, like me, believe it has profound implications to moral philosophy. See: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;arxiv.org&#x2F;abs&#x2F;1805.08347" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;arxiv.org&#x2F;abs&#x2F;1805.08347</a><p>But this is a frustrating position to be in for someone like me, because philosophers don&#x27;t understand Godel&#x27;s theorem, and mathematicians&#x2F;computer scientists don&#x27;t care for philosophy. Instead they spend their time writing pieces like this that justify them for <i>not</i> caring about philosophy. It&#x27;s pretty lame.