Rational Optimism in Philosophy of Kurt Gödel.

Abstract

The article is devoted to philosophy of K. Gödel, particularly to his practically unknown until recent time concepts which were extracted from his Nachlass after his death. The connection of Gödel’s philosophy with systems of Leibniz and Kant is characterized. The Gödel’s dilemma is considered: either human mind surpasses a finite machine, or there exist absolutely undecidable mathematical assertions. The philosophical importance of the dilemma is explained in connection of opposing mentalism to mechanicism, or interrelation between human reasoning and machine deductive inference. The mentalist convictions of Gödel are described as a manifestation of his “rationalistic optimism”.