Why Turing’s Thesis Is Not a Thesis

Robert Irving Soare ()
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Robert Irving Soare: The University of Chicago, Department of Mathematics

A chapter in Turing’s Revolution, 2015, pp 297-310 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract In 1936 Alan Turing showed that any effectively calculable function is computable by a Turing machine. Scholars at the time, such as Kurt Gödel and Alonzo Church, regarded this as a convincing demonstration of this claim, not as a mere hypothesis in need of continual reexamination and justification. In 1988 Robin Gandy said that Turing’s analysis “proves a theorem.” However, Stephen C. Kleene introduced the term “thesis” in 1943 and in his book in 1952. Since then it has been known as “Turing’s Thesis.” Here we discuss whether it is a thesis, a definition, or a theorem. This is important to determine what Turing actually accomplished.

Keywords: Logic in the philosophy of science; Turing machines and related notions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-319-22156-4_12

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-22156-4_12

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