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W for Wiener

Consistency is no longer a virtue

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Lettera Matematica

Abstract

Wiener was a great mathematician endowed with a vast philosophical background. His educational path was strongly influenced by Pragmatist anti-foundationalism, while he felt an instinctive attraction for logical rigour. During the years in which he was close to Russell, Wiener sustained ideas akin to the future results of Gödel. He pointed out that logical rigour can lead to less risky and creative ground. In his opinion, one finds this attitude both in logical positivism and in the Soviet ideology about science.

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Notes

  1. For more about the various aspects of Wiener’s work, see [2, 5, 7, 9]. The subtitle of the present paper paraphrases the title of don Lorenzo Milani’s book L’obbedienza non è più una virtù (“Obedience is non longer a virtue”).

  2. For the reasons for this rejection, see [9].

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Montagnini, L. W for Wiener. Lett Mat Int 5, 203–207 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40329-017-0186-0

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