I went to Princeton from Amherst, where I split my interests between mathematics and philosophy.
Stephen Cole Kleene
I had a liberal arts education at Amherst College where I had two majors, mathematics and philosophy.
philosophy art education
I went to Princeton in the fall of 1930 as a half-time instructor.
thetimes time
Those three years ended with June 1933. At that time I left Princeton, having submitted my Ph.D. Thesis.
In the fall term of 1933-34 I was on my family farm in Maine.
family
And what I learned in Church's course. He trained us intensively in his new system, which he was just developing. Two papers were presented. I think the second paper wasn't published until well after the course was finished.
system
It wasn't until my second year that I got to actually work with Church.
work
I had some hesitations about philosophy because, if you worked out a philosophical theory, it was hard to know whether you were going to be able to prove it or whether other theories had just as good a claim on belief.
belief philosophy
philosophy
When I got to Princeton I made a point of attending the Philosophy Club and listening to the lectures, but I didn't get involved in any discussions in those clubs. I guess after the first year, I dropped that.
listening philosophy
For example, the philosophers who were interested in logic were probably rather logical for mathematicians. But the ASL got us together, so we could talk to each other and publish in the same journal.
example
As I say, there was this movement to try to bring philosophers and mathematicians together into an organization where they would talk to each other. An organization wasn't effective unless you had a journal. That's about all I know.
organization organizations
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