Godel's theorem and mechanism

Philosophy 44 (September):234-7 (1969)
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Abstract

In “Minds, Machines, and Gödel”, J. R. Lucas claims that Goedel's incompleteness theorem constitutes a proof “that Mechanism is false, that is, that minds cannot be explained as machines”. He claims further that “if the proof of the falsity of mechanism is valid, it is of the greatest consequence for the whole of philosophy”. It seems to me that both of these claims are exaggerated. It is true that no minds can be explained as machines. But it is not true that Goedel's theorem proves this. At most, Goedel's theorem proves that not all minds can be explained as machines. Since this is so, Goedel's theorem cannot be expected to throw much light on why minds are different from machines. Lucas overestimates the importance of Goedel's theorem for the topic of mechanism, I believe, because he presumes falsely that being unable to follow any but mechanical procedures in mathematics makes something a machine

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References found in this work

Minds and Machines.Joseph S. Ullian - 1971 - Journal of Symbolic Logic 36 (1):177-177.
Introduction to Mathematical Logic.D. van Dalen - 1964 - Journal of Symbolic Logic 45 (3):631-631.

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