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- From: asimov@wk223.nas.nasa.gov (Daniel A. Asimov)
- Subject: Re: The Continuum Hypothesis: Must it be {True or False}, or Not?
- References: <1992Dec9.183849.13004@nas.nasa.gov> <1992Dec11.162239.8548@cadkey.com>
- Sender: news@nas.nasa.gov (News Administrator)
- Organization: NAS, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California
- Date: Mon, 14 Dec 92 20:00:24 GMT
- Message-ID: <1992Dec14.200024.6435@nas.nasa.gov>
- Distribution: usa
- Lines: 48
-
- In article <1992Dec11.162239.8548@cadkey.com> dennis@cadkey.com (Dennis Paul Himes) writes:
- >In article <1992Dec9.183849.13004@nas.nasa.gov> asimov@wk223.nas.nasa.gov (Daniel A. Asimov) writes:
- >>Among those of you who are familiar with the statement of the
- >>Continuum Hypothesis, and the fact that it was proved to be
- >>independent of ZF + AC, I would like to know:
- >>
- >>Do you see the Truth or Falsity of the Continuum Hypothesis as
- >>being exclusively dependent on a whether it can be proved or
- >>disproved in some specific axiom system?
- >>
- >>Or rather, do you see the Continuum Hypothesis as being
- >>{True or False}, in some sense independent of whether or
- >>not it is decidable in any given axiom system?
- >>
- >
- > Truth is a relative term, although it is usually treated as absolute,
- >since when discussing the nature of reality it is relative to the universe.
- [...]
- >whether CH is "true" in a very loose use of the term. I personally have no
- >idea how you would go about answering that question.
- >
- > Dennis Paul Himes <> dennis@cadkey.com
-
- I don't think I succeeded in conveying my question clearly in this case.
-
- Let me ask a similar question in perhaps a simpler setting:
-
- ASSUME that Fermat's Last Theorem is undecidable from the
- usual axioms of arithmetic.
-
- Then there is a meta-argument which can now conclude that FLT is in fact
- true. For if it were false, then there must exist a counterexample.
- Now simply doing the arithmetic to show that the counterexample
- really is one, constitutes a disproof of FLT, contradicting undecidability.
- Therefore, undecidability implies that FLT cannot be false, so it is true.
-
- Do people buy this, that FLT must be {true or false}, regardless of
- whether it is provably true or false (i.e., decidable)?
-
-
- Dan Asimov
- Mail Stop T045-1
- NASA Ames Research Center
- Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000
-
- asimov@nas.nasa.gov
- (415) 604-4799
-
-