Hans Hahn and the foundational debate (Q2702586)

This article, which has been sent to the reviewer only recently, complements his better-known contemporary survey `A philosopher's mathematician: Hans Hahn and the Vienna Circle', Math. Intell. 17, No. 4, 16-29 (1995; Zbl 0841.01012). The author reviews Hahn's philosophical concerns, especially with positivism and empiricism and their possible reconciliation with mathematics. The important place of Russell's philosophy is clearly registered, and the muted reception of Wittgenstein mercifully recognised. Hahn did not publish a great deal in this area (in the intervening years the texts have appeared under the author's editorship in Hahn's Gesammelte Abhandlungen, Vol. 3, Vienna, New York: Springer (1997; Zbl 0881.01046), but he exercised considerable influence through his teaching and doctoral students. One of them was Kurt Gödel, and the well-known story of its announcement at a meeting in 1930 is rehearsed. He states that Gödel's announcement `brought the debate to a sudden halt' (p. 241), but the transcription in Erkenntnis 2 (1931) does not support this; on the contrary, the audience seems not to have recognised the import of his statement.NEWLINENEWLINEFor the entire collection see [Zbl 0948.00029].