Skip to content
Carmelics
TopicsThinkersChangesContributorsLoading account…

    Carmelics

    A reasoning platform. Break down any belief into clear reasons, explore both sides, and weigh the evidence honestly.

    Navigate

    • Topics
    • Search
    • Recent Changes
    • Contribute
    • How It Works
    • Glossary
    • Thinkers
    • Contributors
    • About
    • Statistics
    • Terms
    • Privacy

    Database

    Statements
    —
    Perspectives
    —
    Topics
    —

    Press ? for keyboard shortcuts

    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Statements
    321,452
    Perspectives
    108,905
    Topics
    42
    The diagonal argument in Turing's halting problem proof y... — Carmelics
    Home
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    Part of a larger discussion

    Challenges→The justification for classifying specific problems as undecidable can be no stronger than the confidence placed in Church's Thesis.

    The diagonal argument in Turing's halting problem proof yields a contradiction within the formal model alone, so the mathematical result stands independently of any claim about informal computation.

    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.

    No one has weighed in yet. Be the first to share reasons for or against this statement.

    Sign in or register to share your perspective on this statement.

    Key Terms

    Alan Turing(the philosopher/scientist being referenced)
    A British mathematician who pioneered computer science and artificial intelligence; he's famous for asking whether machines can think.
    Diagonal argument(Computability theory and set theory)
    A method of constructing a mathematical object that differs from every member of a given enumeration by differing from the nth member on input n, used here to show a set escapes Σ⁰ₙ-definability
    Formal model(logic and theoretical computer science)
    A mathematical or logical system created to represent and study how something works, using precise rules and symbols rather than real-world messiness.
    The halting problem(as a theoretical problem that seemed pointless but became foundational to computer science)
    A famous question Turing asked: 'Can you write a set of instructions that can tell whether any other set of instructions will eventually finish running or keep going forever?' The answer turns out to be no—it's impossible.

    Next step

    Based on where you are in your exploration

    Explore a random proposition
    Start fresh with something unrelated.
    contradiction(Relevant to distinguishing contradictions from false contingent statements in the logic student variant of the preface paradox.)
    A statement that is necessarily false in all interpretations; in this context, specifically the negation of a tautology or any falsehood drawn from a list containing only tautologies and contradictions.

    Connections

    2 topics

    Truth & Knowledge1 linkedSkepticism1 linked

    Related

    The justification for classifying specific problems as undecidable can be no str...

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    0 (0 for, 0 against)
    Edits
    1 edit

    Open for perspectives

    This idea is waiting for its first supporting or challenging perspective.

    Share the first perspective