The Corner

Not Thinking Too Much

LOTS of excellent, thoughtful comment on my current NRO piece about the

importantce of not thinking too much. It is hard to pick out the best from

such a good bunch, but this one I particularly liked, from a NCATWHIWTHHNUON

reader (no clue at to whether he is willing to have his name used or not):

“Derb: As the foundations of math were questioned, the crisis was at a peak

in ‘31. We would still be searching for the foundations of math today, but

Godel proved they could not be found. It wasn’t like the ‘fundamentalists’

just gave up the ghost willingly. Godel destroyed them. The idea that ‘we

shall come to our senses and stop trying to analyze and deconstruct our

society down to the bitter end’ will never happen unless someone or

something (like Godel) kills the opposition (or the opposition destroys

itself by violating natural law one too many times). Just don’t bet on the

’fading away’ theory. It didn’t happen in mathematics. It won’t happen in

Western society, either. Wars don’t end that way.”

John Derbyshire — Mr. Derbyshire is a former contributing editor of National Review.
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