Gödel
Journey to the Edge of Reason by Stephen Budiansky — ruthless logic | Financial Times
Ever since I read of how Gödel’s work has rendered decades of work by Bertrand Russell and others void, Gödel has fascinated me. Not that I can follow the raw proofs. But his work speaks of a wonderful Platonic world that is hard not to fall in love with. Two quotes: the first is new to me, the second, sadly not.
Einstein sponsored his US citizenship, which Gödel almost torpedoed by telling the judge that he had found a logical inconsistency in the constitution that would allow a person to establish a dictatorship in America.
His end, when it came, was tragic. His paranoia grew and he became convinced that his food was being poisoned. When this had happened earlier in his life, his wife had managed to taste test and spoon feed him to health but this time she too was ill and in January 1978, he died in hospital, curled into a foetal position and weighing only 65 pounds.