Prologue
Warning
Judge Forman: "Up to now you have held German citizenship."
Kurt Gödel: "Austrian citizenship.”
Judge: “What kind of government did you have in Austria?”
Gödel: “It was a republic, but the constitution was such that it finally was changed into a dictatorship.”
Judge: “Oh! This is very bad. This could not happen in this country.”
Gödel: “On the contrary, I know how that can happen. And I can prove it!”
- Gödel’s citizenship hearing, December 5, 1947
TIME magazine's controversial cover – Dec. 31, 1999
Kurt Gödel: "Austrian citizenship.”
Judge: “What kind of government did you have in Austria?”
Gödel: “It was a republic, but the constitution was such that it finally was changed into a dictatorship.”
Judge: “Oh! This is very bad. This could not happen in this country.”
Gödel: “On the contrary, I know how that can happen. And I can prove it!”
- Gödel’s citizenship hearing, December 5, 1947
TIME magazine's controversial cover – Dec. 31, 1999
Considered along with Aristotle and Gottlob Frege to be one of the most significant logicians in history, Kurt Friedrich Gödel had an immense effect upon scientific and political thinking in the 20th century. His theorems were considered earth shattering and today are ranked as landmarks in the history of mathematics and philosophy. While vocationally accomplished and acknowledge as brilliant, Gödel was almost as well known for his extreme eccentricities and periods of mental instability.
Gödel published his first incompleteness theorem in 1931 when he was 25 years old, one year after finishing his doctorate at the University of Vienna. After the Anschluss on 12 March 1938, Austria had become a part of Nazi Germany. His former association with Jewish members of the Vienna Circle weighed against him and the University of Vienna turned his application down. In 1939, Gödel and his wife left Vienna for Princeton. There Gödel accepted a position at the Institute for Advanced Study, which he had previously visited during 1933–34. Albert Einstein was also living at Princeton during this time. Gödel and Einstein developed a strong friendship, and were known to take long walks together to and from the Institute.
On December 5, 1947, Einstein and Oskar Morgenstern accompanied Gödel to his U.S. citizenship exam, where they acted as witnesses. Gödel had confided in them that he had discovered an inconsistency in the U.S. Constitution that could allow the U.S. to become a dictatorship. Einstein and Morgenstern were concerned that their friend's unpredictable behavior might jeopardize his application. The judge turned out to be Phillip Forman, who knew Einstein and had administered the oath at Einstein's own citizenship hearing. Everything went smoothly until Forman happened to ask Gödel if he thought a dictatorship like the Nazi regime could happen in the U.S. and Gödel then started to explain his discovery. Forman cut Gödel off and moved the hearing on to other questions and a routine conclusion.
Of course, Forman could not have predicted that this idea would become a true idée fixe of Gödel's feverish mind, but if he had been more attentive, perhaps the entire history of the United States would have taken a different path.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Gödel published his first incompleteness theorem in 1931 when he was 25 years old, one year after finishing his doctorate at the University of Vienna. After the Anschluss on 12 March 1938, Austria had become a part of Nazi Germany. His former association with Jewish members of the Vienna Circle weighed against him and the University of Vienna turned his application down. In 1939, Gödel and his wife left Vienna for Princeton. There Gödel accepted a position at the Institute for Advanced Study, which he had previously visited during 1933–34. Albert Einstein was also living at Princeton during this time. Gödel and Einstein developed a strong friendship, and were known to take long walks together to and from the Institute.
On December 5, 1947, Einstein and Oskar Morgenstern accompanied Gödel to his U.S. citizenship exam, where they acted as witnesses. Gödel had confided in them that he had discovered an inconsistency in the U.S. Constitution that could allow the U.S. to become a dictatorship. Einstein and Morgenstern were concerned that their friend's unpredictable behavior might jeopardize his application. The judge turned out to be Phillip Forman, who knew Einstein and had administered the oath at Einstein's own citizenship hearing. Everything went smoothly until Forman happened to ask Gödel if he thought a dictatorship like the Nazi regime could happen in the U.S. and Gödel then started to explain his discovery. Forman cut Gödel off and moved the hearing on to other questions and a routine conclusion.
Of course, Forman could not have predicted that this idea would become a true idée fixe of Gödel's feverish mind, but if he had been more attentive, perhaps the entire history of the United States would have taken a different path.
Will this timeline be realistic? Well, probably not, but that's what TLIAWs are all about anyway. At least reading all those articles on JSTOR about loopholes in the U.S. Constitution was fun.