Saturday, May 29, 2010

Answer on MathOverflow about the Continuum Hypothesis

I posted an answer on MathOverflow about the Continuum Hypothesis.

I'll express myself here more frankly.

I think that mathematical texts should be written with a minimum of seriousness, and that Gödel and Cohen's texts don't have this minimum of seriousness.

I also think that anybody who compares fairly Gödel and Cohen to Bourbaki will reach the same conclusion.

I could have said instead that I don't understand Gödel and Cohen's writings. It would have been less presumptuous and less offending, but it would also have been less frank.