----- Original Message ----- From: "Justin Schwartz" <jkschw at hotmail.com> To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Sent: Tuesday, April 09, 2002 7:43 PM Subject: RE: Why we will need lawyers anyway
>
> >
> >That's not what Goedel showed, and his theorem has no relevance to law
or
> >political or legal philosophy or practice. What he showed was that
> >arithmetic is incomplete, i.e., that in any formal system powerful
enough
> >to
> >express arithmetic, there is at least one true proposition not
provable
> >within that system. jks
> >
> > And if arithmetic is incomplete, law can be complete?
>
> Law is not a formal language. You cannot state arithmetic in any legal
> vocabulary. Law does not pretend to have theorems. And arithemetic (or
any
> formal language) does not prescribe rules for social conduct. It's a
total
> confusion, whatever the overeducated idiots Ian cited may write in
their
> papers. I am actually expert in both law and mathematical logic, and
take it
> from me, Goedel's theorem has no relevance to the question at hand.
>
> jks
>
===============
Reflexivity alert! An authority using the argument from authority. Paradoxes are proliferating.......
Ian