[FOM] Kreisel, Löb, and G2

[Richard Heck]

On 05/17/2012 06:19 PM, Craig Smorynski wrote:
> Aatu Koskensilta quoted me on the issue of who first realised that 
> Löb's Theorem for a theory T is equivalent to the Second 
> Incompleteness Theorem for all finite extensions of T to the effect 
> that I side with Boolos in crediting Kripke.
> [snip]
> In any event, there was Boolos's crediting Kripke, which I wrote to 
> him about, feeling it smacked more of hero-worship than scholarship.
>
George wasn't really one to worship heroes, though he and Kripke were 
good friends, having first met, I believe, in Oxford in 1962-63.

Many years ago now, George and I were having lunch at a restaurant in 
Harvard Square, One Potato, Two Potato, which is now gone. George told  
me that it was at the very table at which Gerald Sacks and Burt Dreben 
then happened to be sitting, not far from us, that Kripke had showed him 
this argument in 1966, and that it was in large part that conversation 
that had sparked his interest in provability logic.

Richard Heck