This document is posted at
the FMPC bulletin board.
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http://www.ucalgary.ca/~rzach/logblog/2007/02/gdel-quote.html
"Today, philosophy has arrived, at best, at the point mathematics was at in Babylonian times."
This is in exact correspondence with what Gödel said to me when I visited him for two weeks in 1977, about six months before he died in January, 1978.
My overall impression was that Gödel felt that Philosophy would have a very bright future - like mathematics - only that it is very difficult to make substantial progress.
Note that, at least implicitly, Gödel suggests that progress in Philosophy can be judged - judged in such a way that can be compared to progress in mathematics.
Many Philosophers that I know do not believe in such a notion of "progress" in philosophy.
I am wondering what FMPC members think about this.
Harvey Friedman