Re: Publicity

["Fred E.J. Linton" <fejlinton@usa.net>]

Vaughan Pratt <pratt@cs.stanford.edu> suggested:

>   From Rehmeyer's article:
> 
> "It?s even proving valuable in developing rigorous models of music theory."
> 
> " 'If people adopt the level of rigor of category theory,' [Spivak]
> says, 'it will provide a precise language for science as a whole, and it
> will help individual scientists to clarify their thinking.' "
> 
> I don't know what "rigor" is, but if we identify it with consistency
> then there is a limit to the rigor of category theory: Goedel's second
> incompleteness theorem shows that category theory cannot be rigorous
> enough to establish its own rigor.

In my estimation, the "rigor" in Rehmeyer's adjective "rigorous" and
the "rigor" in Spivak's quote have about as little to do with each other
as either has to do with the one in the phrase "rigor mortis" :-) . 

Cheers, -- Fred



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