Alfred Tarski: Life and Logic

by Anita Burdman Feferman , Solomon Feferman

• ISBN13: 9780521802406
• ISBN10: 0521802407
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-10-04
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Alfred Tarski, one of the greatest logicians of all time, is widely thought of as the man who defined truth. His work on the concepts of truth and logical consequence are cornerstones of modern logic, influencing developments in mathematics, philosophy, linguistics, and computer science. Tarski was a charismatic teacher and zealous promoter of his view of logic as the foundation of all rational thought, a bon vivant and a womanizer, who played the great man to the hilt. Born in Warsaw in 1901 to Jewish parents, he changed his name and converted to Catholicism but was never able to obtain a professorship in his home country. A fortuitous trip to the United States at the outbreak of World War II saved his life and turned his career around, even while it separated him from his family for years. By the wars end he was established as a professor of mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley. There Tarski built an empire in logic and methodology that attracted students and distinguished researchers from all over the world. From the cafis of Warsaw and Vienna to the mountains and deserts of California, this first full-length biography places Tarski in the social, intellectual, and historical context of his times and presents a frank, vivid picture of a personally and professionally passionate man - interlaced with an account of his major scientific achievements.

Table of Contents

The Two Tarskis	1	(19)
Independence and University	20	(23)
Interlude I: The Banach--Tarski Paradox, Set Theory, and the Axiom of Choice	43	(26)
Polot! The Polish Attribute	53	(16)
Interlude II: The Completeness and Decidability of Algebra and Geometry	69	(40)
A Wider Sphere of Influence	76	(33)
Interlude III: Truth and Definability	109	(80)
How the ``Unity of Science'' Saved Tarski's Life	124	(26)
Berkeley Is So Far from Princeton	150	(21)
Building a School	171	(18)
Interlude IV: The Publication Campaigns	189	(88)
``Papa Tarski'' and His Students	196	(24)
Three Meetings and Two Departures	220	(26)
Logic and Methodology, Center Stage	246	(11)
Heydays	257	(20)
Interlude V: Model Theory and the 1963 Symposium	277	(57)
Around the World	288	(22)
Los Angeles and Berkeley	310	(24)
Interlude VI: Algebras of Logic	334	(47)
A Decade of Honors	343	(29)
The Last Times	372	(9)
Authors' Note and Acknowledgments	381	(4)
Tarski's Ph.D. Students	385	(2)
Credits	387	(4)
Polish Pronunciation Guide	391	(2)
Notes	393	(16)
Bibliography	409	(8)
Index of Names	417