Does Gödel's incompleteness theorems imply there are infinitely many axioms in mathematics?

143 Views Asked by At

I'm currently reading up on Gödel's incompleteness theorems for a thesis paper but I have trouble grasping the concept and significance of such theorems as it seems to be very abstract and non-intuitive. Is there anyone who could offer help to this newbie researcher on this matter as not even my professors could explain it well to me. Please help.

1

There are 1 best solutions below

0
On

The broad answer is No. However your question is based on a number of misunderstandings. The first is that there isn't one single Formal Axiomatic System (FAS) that constitutes Mathematics. Mathematics is a field and there are different FAS's within it.

There are FAS's that have a finite set of axioms. There are limits to the expressive power of such systems but nothing prevents them from existing.