“Unfortunately, truth is neither a listable nor a decidable property; nor is the truth of a statement of arithmetic. The American logician John Myhill has used the term 'prospective' to characterize those attributes of the world that are neither listable nor decidable. They are properties that cannot be recognized by the application of some formula, made to conform to a rule, or generated by some computer program. They are characterized by incessant novelty that cannot be encompassed by any finite set of rules. 'Beauty', 'ugliness', 'truth', 'harmony', simplicity', and 'poetry' are names we give to some of the attributes of this sort. There is no way of listing all examples of beauty or ugliness, nor any procedure for saying whether or not something possesses either of those attributes, without redefining them in some more restrictive fashion that kills their prospective character.”

Source: The Artful Universe (1995), Ch. 5, pp. 219-220

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Unfortunately, truth is neither a listable nor a decidable property; nor is the truth of a statement of arithmetic. The…" by John D. Barrow?
John D. Barrow photo
John D. Barrow 58
British scientist 1952–2020

Related quotes

Ramana Maharshi photo

“There is neither creation nor destruction,
neither destiny nor free will, neither
path nor achievement.
This is the final truth.”

Ramana Maharshi (1879–1950) Indian religious leader

Source: Sayings of Sri Ramana Maharshi

Thomas Fuller (writer) photo

“803. Antiquity cannot privilege an Error, nor Novelty prejudice a Truth.”

Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654–1734) British physician, preacher, and intellectual

Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)

Sri Aurobindo photo

“The supreme truths are neither the rigid conclusions of logical reasoning nor the affirmations of credal statement, but fruits of the soul's inner experience.”

Sri Aurobindo (1872–1950) Indian nationalist, freedom fighter, philosopher, yogi, guru and poet

Indian Spirituality and Life (1919)
Context: To the Indian mind the least important part of religion is its dogma; the religious spirit matters, not the theological credo. On the contrary to the Western mind a fixed intellectual belief is the most important part of a cult; it is its core of meaning, it is the thing that distinguishes it from others. For it is its formulated beliefs that make it either a true or a false religion, according as it agrees or does not agree with the credo of its critic. This notion, however foolish and shallow, is a necessary consequence of the Western idea which falsely supposes that intellectual truth is the highest verity and, even, that there is no other. The Indian religious thinker knows that all the highest eternal verities are truths of the spirit. The supreme truths are neither the rigid conclusions of logical reasoning nor the affirmations of credal statement, but fruits of the soul's inner experience. Intellectual truth is only one of the doors to the outer precincts of the temple. And since intellectual truth turned towards the Infinite must be in its very nature many-sided and not narrowly one, the most varying intellectual beliefs can be equally true because they mirror different facets of the Infinite. However separated by intellectual distance, they still form so many side-entrances which admit the mind to some faint ray from a supreme Light. There are no true and false religions, but rather all religions are true in their own way and degree. Each is one of the thousand paths to the One Eternal.

Ferenc Dávid photo

“Neither the sword of popes, nor the cross, nor the image of death — nothing will halt the march of truth.”

Ferenc Dávid (1510–1579) Hungarian noble

His last message, carved onto the walls of his dungeon cell, as quoted in For Faith and Freedom (1997) by Charles A. Howe, p. 109 <!-- Skinner House Books, Boston; also quoted on their web page [LINK now DEAD 2016·03·01] about the Transylvania Unitarian Church (Archive 2007) https://web.archive.org/web/20070717180511/www.emersonhou.org/Transylvania.htm by the Emerson Unitarian Universalist Church, Houston -->
Context: Neither the sword of popes, nor the cross, nor the image of death — nothing will halt the march of truth. I wrote what I felt and that is what I preached with trusting spirit. I am convinced that after my destruction the teachings of false prophets will collapse.

Kenneth Arrow photo

“Krugman's whole attack is directed at a statement made neither by Arthur nor by Cassidy. Krugman has not read Cassidy's piece with any care nor has he bothered to review what Arthur has in fact said.”

Kenneth Arrow (1921–2017) American economist

from Kenneth J. Arrow" http://www.pkarchive.org/cranks/Brian.html"Letter (1998)
1970s-1980s

Hazrat Inayat Khan photo

“To a Sufi, revelation is the inherent property of every soul. There is an unceasing flow of the divine stream, which has neither beginning nor end.”

Hazrat Inayat Khan (1882–1927) Indian Sufi

Vol. I, The Way of Illumination, Section I - The Way of Illumination, Part III : The Sufi.
The Spiritual Message of Hazrat Inayat Khan
Context: Is a Sufi a follower of Islam? The word Islam means 'peace'; this is the Arabic word. The Hebrew word is Salem (Jeru-salem). Peace and its attainment in all directions is the goal of the world.
But if the following of Islam is understood to mean the obligatory adherence to a certain rite; if being a Muslim means conforming to certain restrictions, how can the Sufi be placed in that category, seeing that the Sufi is beyond all limitations of this kind? So, far from not accepting the Quran, the Sufi recognizes scriptures which others disregard. But the Sufi does not follow any special book. The shining ones, such as 'Attar, Shams-i Tabriz, Rumi, Sadi, and Hafiz, have expressed their free thought with a complete liberty of language. To a Sufi, revelation is the inherent property of every soul. There is an unceasing flow of the divine stream, which has neither beginning nor end.

“Private property is a means, and neither its abolition nor its unrestricted right should be an end in itself”

Kenneth E. Boulding (1910–1993) British-American economist

Source: 1950s, Principles of economic policy, 1958, p. 400

Marcus Aurelius photo
Marcus Aurelius photo

Related topics