04-02-2014, 12:04 PM
(This post was last modified: 04-02-2014, 12:08 PM by Rosa Lichtenstein.)
Fur, I thought it was a hoax, too, but this 'formalisation' appeared in an academic journal (so one assumes it had been peer reviewed!), and was later reprinted in a collection of academic essays about Hegel.
Incidentally, the on-line version is full of typos; the version at my site restores the original published version.
Unfortunately, academics have taken this 'formalisation' seriously for many years, but it is now quite apparent that they can't have read through it, since it is easy to show that it is flawed from beginning to end. As far as I know, my takedown is the very first of its kind.
Concerning its author, I had this to say in the above essay:
Finally, the jumbled mess found in Kosok's paper isn't Boolean Algebra, and doesn't even resemble it; it is simply a confused hieroglyphic system he cooked up himself.
Incidentally, the on-line version is full of typos; the version at my site restores the original published version.
Unfortunately, academics have taken this 'formalisation' seriously for many years, but it is now quite apparent that they can't have read through it, since it is easy to show that it is flawed from beginning to end. As far as I know, my takedown is the very first of its kind.
Concerning its author, I had this to say in the above essay:
Quote:Anyway, Kosok has apparently disappeared (according to his leading disciple, the 'Marxist' mystic, Peter Wilberg):
"The larger-than-life man to whom this essay is dedicated and without whose genius and inspiration it could not possibly have been written, is in all likelihood long dead. I first encountered Michael Kosok in 1975, when he was still professor of physics and mathematics at Fairleigh Dickinson University, New Jersey. For over two decades now he has disappeared from trace, his extraordinary writings on philosophy and science now seemingly consigned to oblivion -- never published save for a few articles in the journal Telos."
Otherwise, I would have asked Professor Kosok directly whether or not his 'formalisation' was genuine. In fact, I tried to e-mail him using the address given at his site, but my e-mail was returned "undeliverable". I haven't been able to ascertain any more details about this maverick 'logician'.
Finally, the jumbled mess found in Kosok's paper isn't Boolean Algebra, and doesn't even resemble it; it is simply a confused hieroglyphic system he cooked up himself.
