A Chalet on Mount Everest: Interpretations of Wittgenstein’s Remarks on Gödel

This thesis offers a critical overview of the debate on Wittgenstein’s remarks on Gödel. These remarks—which have since their publication been the source of much controversy—were said by early commentators to show that (a) Wittgenstein did not understand the role consistency plays in the proof of Gödel’s theorem and logic in general, and that (b) he mistakenly thought that a natural language interpretation of the Gödel sentence was necessary to establish the incompleteness of Principia Mathematica. Later commentators have been more sympathetic to Wittgenstein’s remarks and have with few exceptions denied both claims. We examine their interpretations and evaluate their cogency and exegetical value.