Work Classification Layer
Compare Works
Pick two or more works to set their attribute fingerprints, dimension-by-dimension passages, and shared school embodiments side by side. Especially useful for author-stage comparisons (Wittgenstein early vs late) and for setting a single tradition's foundational texts against each other.
What is Cantor's Continuum Problem?
Gödel's 1947/1964 'What Is Cantor's Continuum Problem?' — the Platonist statement of his philosophy of mathematics
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | What is Cantor's Continuum Problem? (Middle-to-late) |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Infinite |
| Time · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Time · Grain | Continuous |
| Time · Freedom | Deterministic |
| Time · Traversability | Linear |
| Time · Dimensionality | One |
| Time · Direction | Uni-directional |
| Space · Extent | Infinite |
| Space · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Space · Curvature | Curved |
| Space · Dimensionality | Three |
| Space · Locality | Local |
| Matter · Extent | Infinite |
| Matter · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Matter · Conservation | Conserved |
| Matter · Dimensionality | Three |
| Matter · Locality | Local |
| Observer · Time Instance | Single |
| Observer · Space Instance | Single |
| Observer · Knowledge Extent | Mediated |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Total |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Active |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | Impersonal |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Reason |
| Observer · Theological Method | — |
| Energy · Extent | Infinite |
| Energy · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Energy · Conservation | Conserved |
| Energy · Dispersibility | Irreversible |
| Information · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Information · Cosmic Conservation | Conserved |
| Information · Personal Conservation | Conserved |
| Information · Granularity | Continuous |
Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence
What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.
Time
What is Cantor's Continuum Problem?
1947 first version; 1964 substantially expanded version (after Cohen's 1963 independence proof).
Space
What is Cantor's Continuum Problem?
Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton — Gödel's institutional base from 1940 until his 1978 death.
Matter
What is Cantor's Continuum Problem?
Single philosophical paper (~10 pages in original 1947; ~30 pages with 1964 supplement). Form is essay-philosophical: Gödel sets out the mathematical situation, then the philosophical interpretation.
Observer
What is Cantor's Continuum Problem?
Middle-to-late Gödel. The 1947 paper is by the Gödel who had proven the consistency of CH (1940); the 1964 supplement is by the Gödel responding to Cohen's just-published independence result.
Energy
What is Cantor's Continuum Problem?
Philosophical-Platonist energies. The paper is Gödel's most explicit philosophical statement of his mathematical realism.
Information
What is Cantor's Continuum Problem?
Short paper plus substantial 1964 supplement. Together they constitute Gödel's principal philosophical-mathematical statement.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
Canonical twentieth-century statement of mathematical Platonism. Continuously cited in philosophy of mathematics; the central reference point for the realist position against constructivism (Brouwer), formalism (late Hilbert), nominalism (Field, Burgess and Rosen), and structuralism (Shapiro, Resnik). The 'large cardinal' research programme since Gödel has been driven in part by his proposal that new axioms might settle CH.