Kurt Gödel: The Genius of Metamathematics

Preface
Yet Another Gödel Biography!?
Notes
Acknowledgments
Contents
About the Author
1 Prologue
	Notes
2 La Belle Époque in Brünn
	Notes
3 School Days. A New Nation
	Elementary School
	High School
	Mathematics and Philosophy
	World War I and the End of the Austro-Hungarian Empire
	Notes
4 Student Life. Moving to Vienna
	The University
	The ‘First Vienna Circle’
	The Vienna Circle (Wiener Kreis)
	Gödel’s ‘Turn’ to Metamathematics
	Notes
5 Private Life in Vienna
	Relationship with Adele
	The Occult and Esoterica
	The Fateful Year 1929
	Notes
6 An Introduction to Mathematical Logic
	Geometry
	Example Proofs
	Pythagoras’ Theorem
	Aristotle’s Logic
	Paradoxes
	Modern Developments
	Formal Logic
	Set Theory, Infinities: Georg Cantor
	The Twentieth Century
	Notes
7 Gödel’s Doctoral Thesis, 1928–30: The Completeness of First-Order Logic
	Antecedents
	First-Order Logic
	The Thesis
	Gödel’s Proof of Completeness
	The Compactness Theorem
	The Intellectual Setting of Gödel’s Thesis
	The Brouwer-Hilbert Controversy
	Tales of Bernays, Post and Henkin
	Notes
8 The Mathematician in Vienna. The Incompleteness Theorems
	Hilbert’s Second Problem
		The Königsberg Conference
	Gödel’s Proof
		Gödel Numbering
	Using the Gödel Numbers
		Some Amusing Comments
		The Second Incompleteness Theorem
	Response to the Incompleteness Theorems
		Gödel after Publication of the Incompleteness Theorems
	Gödel’s Habilitation
	Notes
9 Matters of Health
	Early Years
	After 1930
	First Breakdown
	Princeton Redux
	The Disastrous Year 1936
	Back to Work: 1937
	The Ostmark—1938/39
	Princeton, 1938—Notre Dame, 1939
	A Brief and Hectic Interlude in Vienna
	Back to Princeton—For Good!
	A Safe Haven at the IAS
	The 1950s and 60s
	The Beginning of the End
	Conclusions: Gödel’s Health
	Gödel and Asperger
	Notes
10 A Sojourn Abroad, 1933/34
	Princeton and the Founding of the IAS
	The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS)
		Buildings and Grounds
	Gödel’s First Stay at the IAS
		Lectures on Incompleteness
	Returning to Vienna: The Political Scene in Germany and Austria
	Notes
11 Transition Years, 1935–39—A Time of Uncertainty
	Set Theory
	Gödel in 1935/36
		A Lost Year
		The Death of Moritz Schlick
	Recovering—1937. Set Theory, Continued
		Private Life
	The Fateful Year—1938
	Princeton And Notre Dame, 1938/39
	Leaving Grinzing—And Vienna
	Notes
12 Computability: Post, Gödel, Church, Turing (and Many Others)
	Gödel’s Contribution
		Post’s Later Work
	Mind and Machine—Intelligent Machines and Artificial Intelligence (AI)
	Notes
13 1940: A Long Journey Eastward to the West
	The Trans-Siberian Railway as an Escape Route from Fascist Europe
	Notes
14 Princeton. Settling in at the IAS. Gödel in America, 1940s
	The Viennese Diaspora
	Gödel’s Chapter on Bertrand Russell’s Logic, 1944. Philosophical Works
	Friendship with Albert Einstein
	The Later 1940s
	Private Life in Princeton
	An Excursion into Physics
	Notes
15 A Bizarre Birthday Present: Gödel’s Universe
	Einstein’s Relativity Theory
	Theories of Gravity
	Fields and Potentials—Electrostatics and Newtonian Gravitation
	Gödel’s Universe—Relativity and Cosmology
	Gödel’s Cosmology, and his Philosophy of Time
	Light Cones, Time Travel, and Geodesics in Gödel’s Universe
	The Philosophy of Time
	Kurt Gödel: Mathematician, Philosopher, Physicist
	Notes
16 The 1950s. Disciples—Recognition.
	The Disciples of the Master
	Gödel’s Honors and Awards
	The Gibbs Lecture, 1951
	Herr Professor Dr. Gödel
		The Carnap Book
		Bernays and the Dielectica Paper
	Losses
	Gödel’s ‘Other Disciples’
	Private Life
	Notes
17 The 1960s. Fame and Seclusion
	The ‘Theological Correspondence’
	Publications and Writings, Honors
	Later Disciples: Cohen and Tennenbaum
	Notes
18 Gödel’s Last Years—Philosophy, Set Theory, Logic
	Gödel’s Ontological Proof
	The Continuum Hypothesis
	Gödel and Abraham Robinson
	Gödel’s Philosophy
	The Final Year—January 1977–January 1978
	Notes
19 Gödel’s Legacy
	Notes
20 Epilogue
	Notes
Appendix A: Publications by Kurt Gödel
Appendix B: Literature About Kurt Gödel
Appendix C: Publications by the CBPF Group on Gödel’s Universe 1978–2018
References
Index