Gödel, Turing and the Iconic/Performative Axis
1936 was a watershed year for computability. Debates among Gödel, Church and others over the correct analysis of the intuitive concept “human effectively computable”, an analysis at the heart of the Incompleteness Theorems, the Entscheidungsproblem, the question of what a finite computation is, and...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2022-12-01
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| Series: | Philosophies |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2409-9287/7/6/141 |
| _version_ | 1827295221119975424 |
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| author | Juliette Cara Kennedy |
| author_facet | Juliette Cara Kennedy |
| author_sort | Juliette Cara Kennedy |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | 1936 was a watershed year for computability. Debates among Gödel, Church and others over the correct analysis of the intuitive concept “human effectively computable”, an analysis at the heart of the Incompleteness Theorems, the Entscheidungsproblem, the question of what a finite computation is, and most urgently—for Gödel—the generality of the Incompleteness Theorems, were definitively set to rest with the appearance, in that year, of the Turing Machine. The question I explore here is, do the mathematical facts exhaust what is to be said about the thinking behind the “confluence of ideas in 1936”? I will argue for a cultural role in Gödel’s, and, by extension, the larger logical community’s absorption of Turing’s 1936 model. As scaffolding I employ a conceptual framework due to the critic Leo Marx of the technological sublime; I also make use of the distinction within the technological sublime due to Caroline Jones, between its iconic and performative modes—a distinction operating within the conceptual art of the 1960s, but serving the history of computability equally well. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T15:57:13Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-33bf842566664e32a325b4df8bbb921c |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2409-9287 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-24T14:15:57Z |
| publishDate | 2022-12-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Philosophies |
| spelling | doaj.art-33bf842566664e32a325b4df8bbb921c2024-04-03T08:36:23ZengMDPI AGPhilosophies2409-92872022-12-017614110.3390/philosophies7060141Gödel, Turing and the Iconic/Performative AxisJuliette Cara Kennedy0Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Helsinki, 00100 Helsinki, Finland1936 was a watershed year for computability. Debates among Gödel, Church and others over the correct analysis of the intuitive concept “human effectively computable”, an analysis at the heart of the Incompleteness Theorems, the Entscheidungsproblem, the question of what a finite computation is, and most urgently—for Gödel—the generality of the Incompleteness Theorems, were definitively set to rest with the appearance, in that year, of the Turing Machine. The question I explore here is, do the mathematical facts exhaust what is to be said about the thinking behind the “confluence of ideas in 1936”? I will argue for a cultural role in Gödel’s, and, by extension, the larger logical community’s absorption of Turing’s 1936 model. As scaffolding I employ a conceptual framework due to the critic Leo Marx of the technological sublime; I also make use of the distinction within the technological sublime due to Caroline Jones, between its iconic and performative modes—a distinction operating within the conceptual art of the 1960s, but serving the history of computability equally well.https://www.mdpi.com/2409-9287/7/6/141GödelTuringGreenbergmodernismtechnological sublimetechnological optimism |
| spellingShingle | Juliette Cara Kennedy Gödel, Turing and the Iconic/Performative Axis Philosophies Gödel Turing Greenberg modernism technological sublime technological optimism |
| title | Gödel, Turing and the Iconic/Performative Axis |
| title_full | Gödel, Turing and the Iconic/Performative Axis |
| title_fullStr | Gödel, Turing and the Iconic/Performative Axis |
| title_full_unstemmed | Gödel, Turing and the Iconic/Performative Axis |
| title_short | Gödel, Turing and the Iconic/Performative Axis |
| title_sort | godel turing and the iconic performative axis |
| topic | Gödel Turing Greenberg modernism technological sublime technological optimism |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2409-9287/7/6/141 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT juliettecarakennedy godelturingandtheiconicperformativeaxis |