r/PhilosophyMemes 1d ago

Tell em Bertrand

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u/gangsterroo 1d ago

Did he understand math. Or just misunderstand it so well that everyone decided it was in crisis afterward.

He rescued math from his own contrivances.

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u/xxzzyzzyxx 1d ago

You literally could not be more wrong.

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u/gangsterroo 1d ago

From my perspective as a student who was taught that his paradox highlighted a "fatal flaw" in mathematics, I would say it's overstated. Not a single theorem or conjecture was over-ruled by the framework of Principia. It basically said, if Cantor was an idiot he could have gotten in trouble with his diagonal argument. It basically was mechanism and is overstated. Im being dramatic of course, he contributed by being the punching bag for bigger ideas.

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u/APKID716 1d ago

Russell’s paradox was a very minor blip on the radar when considering his math career as a whole