"...Once you entomb mathematics in an artificial language à la Hilbert, once you set up a completely formal axiomatic system, then you can forget that it has any meaning and just look at it as a game that you play with marks on paper that enable you to deduce theorems from axioms. You can forget about the meaning of the game, the game of mathematical reasoning, it's just combinatorial play with symbols! There are certain rules, and you can study these rules and forget that they have any meaning!"
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Philosophers from the United StatesComputer scientists from the United StatesMathematicians from the United StatesPeople from ChicagoLogicians from the United States
Original Language: English
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1999 Lecture—"A Century of Controversy over the Foundations of Mathematics" at U. Massachusetts at Lowell, quoted in p. 15
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gregory_Chaitin
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Gregory Chaitin
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