Gödel, Wittgenstein and the Sensibility of Platonism

Abstract

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The paper presents an interpretation of Platonism, the seeds of which can be found in the writings of Gödel and Wittgenstein. Although it is widely accepted that Wittgenstein is an anti-Platonist the author points to some striking affinities between Gödel’s and Wittgenstein’s accounts of mathematical concepts and the role of feeling and intuition in mathematics. A version of Platonism emerging from these considerations combines realism with respect to concepts with a view of concepts as accessible to feeling and able to guide our behavior through feeling.

Keywords

• concepts
• gödel
• intuition
• mathematics
• platonism
• realism
• rule-following
• wittgenstein