VAuroch comments on Proofs, Implications, and Models - Less Wrong
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Ok, fair enough. My philosophy professors were the logically-rudest adults I've spoken to. Actually, that's not even true. Rather, my philosophy professors were the people I most hoped would have less than the standard rudeness, but did not at all.
An anecdote: spring quarter last year, I tried to convince my philosophy professor that logic preserves certainty, but that we could (probably) never be absolutely certain that we had witnessed a correct derivation. He dodged, and instead sermonized about the history of logic. At one point I mentioned GEB, and he said, I quote, "Hofstadter is something of a one trick pony". Here, "one trick" refers to "self-reference". I was too flabbergasted to respond politely.
To be fair, Hoftstadter is basically a one-trick pony, in that he published one academically-relevant book and then more or less jumped straight to Professor Emeritus in all but name, publishing very little and interacting with academia even less.
Just wishing I had read GEB sooner. Reading it now and it seems to be getting ruined by politics.
Politics? I don't understand how.
Also, above comment should in no way be taken as criticism of GEB. It's great. It's just that that's pretty much all he has to his credit.
I mean people want to tear chunks out of it for status reasons... ...I think.