Kurt Gödel: Philosophische Notizbücher / Philosophical Notebooks / Band 5 / Maximen V / Maxims V

Over a period of 22 years (1934-1955), the mathematician Kurt Gödel wrote down philosophical remarks, the so-called Maximen Philosophie (Max Phil). They are preserved in 15 notebooks in Gabelsberger shorthand. The first booklet contains general philosophical considerations, booklets two and three consist of Gödel's individual ethics. The following books show that Gödel developed a philosophy of science in which he places his discussions on physics, psychology, biology, mathematics, language, theology and history in the context of a metaphysics.

A complete, historical-critical edition of Gödel's Philosophical Notebooks is now being prepared for the first time at the Kurt Gödel Research Centre of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. One volume will be published each year as part of this edition.

Volume 5 is particularly interesting because Gödel reveals his satisfaction with it at the beginning of 'Maximen V'. He states that he has arrived at independent thought here, which has not primarily come about through discussion with other authors. Furthermore, in addition to numerous remarkable philosophical considerations, there is a previously unknown interpretation of his (second) incompleteness theorem that goes beyond the mathematical one.