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January 19, 2006
What Was It That Upset Kurt Gödel About the U. S. Constitution?
I've read this story more than once. The quotation below and much of the rendition I give in this post are from Gödel, A Life of Logic by John Casti and Werner DePauli. It seems that in 1948 Gödel decided to become a U. S. citizen. So he set to work studying the Constitution in the way one might expect from an eminent and eccentric logician. And guess what, he found what he believed to be a logical flaw in the document; a logical flaw that might allow the U.S. to become a dictatorship. He called his Princeton friend, the economist, Oskar Morgenstern and gave him a very passionate account of his discovery. That happened the night before a judge was to examine Gödel as part of the citizenship process. Well, Morgenstern and Einstein were to serve as Gödel's witnesses for the examination. And according to one account that I remember, Gödel told them that he could not become a citizen until the logic problem was resolved perhaps by an amendment to the Constitution. Morgenstern, and Einstein assured him that his concern was "extremely hypothetical" and managed to get him clamed down enough to go to the examination. As the three of them drove to the federal courthouse in Trenton, Morgenstern and Einstein tried to keep Gödel's mind off this concern by telling jokes and, again according to a different account, singing Austrian folksongs.
At the interview itself, the judge was suitably impressed by the sterling character and public personas of Gödel's witnesses and even broke with tradition by inviting them to sit in during the exam. The judge began by saying to Gödel, "Up to now you have held German citizenship." Gödel corrected this slight affront, noting that he was Austrian. Unfazed, the judge continued, "Anyhow, it was under an evil dictatorship ... but fortunately, that's not possible in America." With the magic word dictatorship out of the bag, Gödel was not to be denied, crying out, "On the contrary, I know how that can happen. And I can prove it!" By all accounts, it took the efforts of not only Einstein and Morgenstern but also of the judge to calm Gödel down and prevent him from launching into a detailed and lengthy discourse about his "discovery." [p. 89]
Gödel's knowledge of the Constitution did impress the judge sufficiently for him to grant Gödel citizenship.
I have never heard the nature of Gödel's logical concern but I wonder, in the light a President who is asserting ever-increasing powers, a Congress willing to allow it and a likely new Supreme Court Justice who may also move the Court in the direction of supporting increased presidential powers, if Gödel could still be consoled with jokes and folksongs.
Posted by Duane Smith at January 19, 2006 9:18 AM | Read more on Odds and Ends |
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Comments
I emailed 6 constitutional scholars and 5 senators about this US Constitution flaw and received not response. I even email David Broder,a journalist about this possible problem with the attached document, but he has not responded either. Do you know if anyone is analyzing the constittution to see if it has a flaw which would take this country into a dictartorship? Regards, Bill Garner
http://fourteenthcircuit.blogspot.com/fourteenthcircuit_archive.html
Posted by: William J. Garner at January 25, 2006 7:40 AM
Bill,
No, I've tried to find something on this but I obviously didn't do a very good job because I failed to find your most interesting post. Thanks for the comment.
Posted by: Duane at January 25, 2006 8:21 AM
John Dawson, Logical Dilemmas: The Life and Work of Kurt Godel, pp. 179-81, gives an account of this, from the diary of Morgenstern and an interview with his widow (p. 300, n. 431); Dawson notes that "Morgenstern claimed to have written up a separate account of the incident suitable for publication"--but could not find it.
Palle Yourgrau, A World without Time: The Forgotten Legacy of Einstein and Godel (2005), pp. 102-3, also tells the story; as does Rebecca Goldstein, Incompleteness: The Proof and Paradox of Kurt Godel (2005), pp. 232-4, who further says she asked John Dawson in 2004 whether he knew what exactly the logical flaw/inconsistency was, and Dawson answered "No...[but] There is a set of shorthand notes in Gödel's Nachlass [German for "estate"/"papers"] concerned with American government (presumably made while he was studying for the citizenship examination) that might contain the answer, but transcribing that particular item has never had as much priority as the mathematical material."
So, anyone at Princeton?
Posted by: Mischa at January 26, 2006 12:43 PM
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