X-Message-Number: 10212 Date: Mon, 10 Aug 1998 08:58:33 -0700 From: Rand Simberg <> Subject: More Incompleteness Bob Ettinger wrote: >Rand Simberg says there is no way to prove the rational approach is >best, unless you first accept rationality. This is just saying that, if you >refuse to listen to reason, reason will not persuade you. No, that's not what it is saying. It is saying that even if you listen to reason, that does not mean that you have to accept it as your basis for attaining knowledge. Without such acceptance, reason has no power to persuade, let alone be "true." >True, but irrelevant. I don't know whether it is "true," but it is most relevant--it is the bulwark of the argument. >(And it's somewhat humorous, too, for someone to use "logical" argument >to "prove" that logical argument isn't necessarily valid.) Well, if it was a proof, as a corollary of the theorem, it was no more or less of one than Goedel came up with. I'm not aware of anyone who has shown him to be wrong over the last sixty odd years. >And I'll get to the Incompleteness Theorem(s) in due time; it's one of >my favorite projects. I suspect that many of us await that with interest, but without much anticipation of success.... -- ************************************************************************ simberg.interglobal.org * 310 372-7963 (CA) 307 739-1296 (Jackson Hole) interglobal space lines * 307 733-1391 (Fax) http://www.interglobal.org "Extraordinary launch vehicles require extraordinary markets..." Replace first . with @ and throw out the "@trash." to email me. Here's my email address for autospammers: Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=10212