I think you're misreading it, but let's be explicit: what is wrong about that statement, in your reading?
I think you're misreading it . . .
Okay, that's a good point. Let's take for example the statement
"One plus one is two."That's a given mathematical statement. But according to Davies, if I say,
"Class, that statement must either be true or false,"then I am mistaken because, according to him, you can't make that claim about ANY given mathematical statement, including one so trivial as this. At least that's how I read it, and I think that's how a lot of people will read it.
Do you think I'm making a mountain out of a molehill? Maybe so. It just struck me as sooooo wrong and misleading. Is Davies a Brit? Gotta make exceptions for those guys, lol.
I found the statement to be misleading in the sense that to a casual reader, they might think that he's saying that "11 is a prime number" and similar simple straighforward true statements) are somehow in doubt.
You know that's no true, and I know it's not true, and we both know he couldn't have meant it that way, but for lay people not familiar with Gödel, it is way too easy to misinterpret what the sentence was intended to convey.