Austrian logician Kurt Gödel’s incompleteness theorems showed us the limitations of mathematics within mathematics. While math is still useful for proving scientific theorems, Gödel transformed the perception of pure mathematics in a way that still makes modern mathematicians uncomfortable. Here, leading thinkers—a mathematician, a philosopher, and a physicist—wrestle, almost literally, with the implications of Gödel’s legacy.

This program is part of The Big Idea Series, made possible with support from the John Templeton Foundation.

Image courtesy of The Shelby White and Leon Levy Archives Center, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ, USA; Recorded June 2010; Posted October 2010