Alfred Tarski: Life and Logic

by Anita Burdman Feferman , Solomon Feferman

• ISBN13: 9780521714013
• ISBN10: 052171401X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-04-07
• 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	p. 1
Independence and University	p. 20
The Banach-Tarski Paradox, Set Theory, and the Axiom of Choice	p. 43
Polot! The Polish Attribute	p. 53
The Completeness and Decidability of Algebra and Geometry	p. 69
A Wider Sphere of Influence	p. 76
Truth and Definability	p. 109
How the "Unity of Science" Saved Tarski's Life	p. 124
Berkeley Is So Far from Princeton	p. 150
Building a School	p. 171
The Publication Campaigns	p. 189
"Papa Tarski" and His Students	p. 196
Three Meetings and Two Departures	p. 220
Logic and Methodology, Center Stage	p. 246
Heydays	p. 257
Model Theory and the 1963 Symposium	p. 277
Around the World	p. 288
Los Angeles and Berkeley	p. 310
Algebras of Logic	p. 334
A Decade of Honors	p. 343
The Last Times	p. 372
Authors' Note and Acknowledgments	p. 381
Tarski's Ph.D. Students	p. 385
Credits	p. 387
Polish Pronunciation Guide	p. 391
Notes	p. 393
Bibliography	p. 409
Index of Names	p. 417
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