Posted by Tyler on January 02, 1997 at 07:54:32:
In Reply to: Re: late entry into Lynn and Stephen's conversation posted by Tyler on January 02, 1997 at 02:06:14:
I also would add that in mathematics, Godel's Incompleteness Theorem pretty much shut the door on the idea that mathematics is self-coherent. In this monumental proof, the conclusion was made that in any rigidly logical system, propositions exist that are undecidable and/or undemonstrable within the axioms of the system. Mathematics is just not internally consistent, primarily from the fact that the base assumptions on which everything is built rest on non-proven footing; they are assumed "self-evident" (things like the sum of interior angles on a triangle = 180 degrees, two points demark a line, the shortest distance btw. two points is a straight line, etc.).