In 1931, the Austrian logician Kurt Gödel published his incompleteness theorem, a result widely considered one of the greatest intellectual achievements of modern times. The theorem states that in any ...

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND - APRIL 19: A detailed view of the blackboard with theoretical physics equations in chalk by Alberto Ramos, Theoretical Physics Fellow and visitor, Antonio Gonzalez-Arroyo from the ...

The reticent and relentlessly abstract logician Kurt Gödel might seem an unlikely candidate for popular appreciation. But that’s what Rebecca Goldstein aims for in her new book Incompleteness, an ...

Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem, which proved that no formal mathematical system can demonstrate every mathematical truth, is a landmark of modern thought. It's a simple but profound statement, but the ...

"All Cretans are liars", said Epimenides, a Cretan. But this means that his statement must be a lie too. But then it is false that Cretans are liars and the statement must be true. So what now?

The surprise of Kurt Gödel's incompleteness theorem of 1931 lay not so much in the incompleteness itself, but that it was found in so simple a mathematical theory as first-order arithmetic. It follows ...

When you purchase an independently reviewed book through our site, we earn an affiliate commission. In 1947, having left Nazi-occupied Vienna for the quaint idyll of Princeton, N.J., seven years ...

We are sometimes inclined to make celebrities out of intellectuals despite—or perhaps precisely because of—their producing work we can never hope to understand. Bertrand Russell’s oddly old-fashioned ...

Earlier today I set you the puzzle below, which is based on Gödel’s incompleteness theorem. As I discussed in the original post, this theorem is one of the most famous in maths and states that in any ...