weemba@brahms.UUCP (07/04/86)
In article <4031@decwrl.DEC.COM> cooper@pbsvax.dec.com (Topher Cooper DTN-225-5819) writes: >>[1957 G Spencer-Brown reference] >G. Spencer-Brown is best known for his book "The Laws of Form." (I'm doing >this off the top of my head so I can't give publication info) It is the >thesis of this work that there is something fundamentally wrong with all >existing formal logic, and therefore, with the foundations of all modern >mathematics. A friend of mine once said of it, "It would clearly be a work >of genius if only it made any sense at all." Many people who read it, >including those with a fair amount of mathematical sophistication, are left >with the feeling that Spencer-Brown seems to have said *something* of >importance but it's completely unclear what. This is all true, and Spencer-Brown *is* a modern day crank. However, I do not know if he was a crank in 1957, which would be the relevant point. To your credit, Topher, you ignore the issue. Concerning _The Laws of Form_, it may be brilliant for a laymen to think up, but for a mathematician it's pretty minimal fare. ucbvax!brahms!weemba Matthew P Wiener/UCB Math Dept/Berkeley CA 94720