[FOM] Godel Sentence & The Liar

mjmurphy 4mjmu at rogers.com
Wed Aug 20 21:12:30 EDT 2003


Let's say the Godel Sentence is P, and P says "P is not provable".
Historically, the Godel Sentence is often said to be derived from, or maybe
just related to,  the Liar.

While the Liar is usually rendered as "This sentence is false.", I have seen
a variant something like "This sentence cannot be proven true.", and I can't
think of a reason why it couldn't also appear as something like "This
sentence cannot be verified (as true(?))."

My question is, does the fact that the Godel Sentence is supposed to be true
but unprovable suggest a possible solution to The Liar?  I have read
accounts where the Liar is taken to be false, or perhaps without truth
value, or perhaps both true and false.  I have not come across an account
where it is interpreted as true but unprovable/unverifiable.  Isn't there an
analogy to be exploited here, or not?  Wouldn't the existence of true but
unverifiable propositions be an interesting result?

Cheers,

M.J.Murphy





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