# Britannica Chatbot  ## Metadata - Author: [[Mark Balaguer]] - Full Title: Britannica Chatbot - Category: #articles - Summary: Kurt Gödel was a famous mathematician and logician known for his incompleteness theorem, which showed that some mathematical truths cannot be proven within any system. He faced health issues and paranoia throughout his life, which worsened with age. Despite his groundbreaking work, his philosophical views, particularly on Platonism, were not widely accepted. - URL: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Kurt-Godel#:~:text=Indeed%2C%20it%20is,human%20axiom%20systems. ## Highlights - Indeed, it is a little-known fact that Gödel set out to prove the incompleteness theorem in the first place because he thought he could use it to establish the philosophical view known as Platonism—or, more specifically, the subview known as [mathematical Platonism](https://www.britannica.com/science/philosophy-of-mathematics#ref259812). [Mathematical Platonism](https://www.britannica.com/topic/mathematical-Platonism) is the view that mathematical sentences, such as “2 + 2 = 4,” provide true descriptions of a collection of objects—namely, numbers—that are nonphysical and nonmental and exist outside of space and time in a special mathematical realm—or, as it has also been called, “Platonic Heaven.” Gödel’s idea was that if he could prove the incompleteness theorem, then he could show that there were unprovable mathematical truths. This, he thought, would go a long way toward establishing Platonism, because it would show that mathematical truth is objective—i.e., that it goes beyond mere human provability or human axiom systems. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j5zhx7b7dqbce27r8zcqdxgb))