Gödel's incompleteness theorems and computer science (Q1567047)

The author surveys some applications of Gödel's incompleteness theorems to artificial intelligence, philosophy of mind and philosophy of mathematics. According to certain authors like \textit{J. J. C. Smart} [Synthese 13, 105-110 (1961; Zbl 0104.24203)] and \textit{Lucas} [Philosophy 36, 112-127 (1961)] and Gödel himself, Gödel's theorems show that mechanism fails, i.e., the doctrine that the human mind is a machine or may be modelled as a machine. These arguments, however, are shown to suffer from several problems. Gödel's theorems are also a challenge for the view that a single formal system can encompass our entire mathematical reasoning.