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Alfred Tarski, Life and LogicAnita Burdman Feferman, Solomon Fefermandrpartha@gmail.com |
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Alfred Tarski, Life and Logic Anita Burdman Feferman, Solomon Feferman Cambridge University Press, 2004 425 pages ISBN-13: : 978-0521714013 This is a fascinating book about the great Polish logician Alfred Tarski (born Alfred Teitelbaum), 1901-1983. |
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This remarkable book presents Alfred 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. This book
can be a major source of reference for all those interested in logic and set theory.
The authors Solomon Feferman, a professor of mathematics and philosophy at Stanford, and his wife, Anita Burdman Feferman, an independent scholar and biographer, open their book with the judgment that "Alfred Tarski was one of the greatest logicians of all times." An authoritative and detailed review of this book, by Philip J Davis, can be found at : https://archive.siam.org/news/news.php?id=35 The four most famous logicians of all times are considered to be: Aristotle, Frege, Gödel, and Tarski. Tarski was exceptional because he grew up in adverse and frighteningly hostile times. Born in Warsaw in 1901 to Jewish parents, he had to change his name and get converted to Catholicism. He lived in constant fear, and was never able to obtain a professorship in his home country. A trip to the United States, at the outbreak of war, saved his life and turned his career around, even while it separated him from his family for years. His parents, brother, and other relations were wiped out in 1944 by the Nazi savagery. One wonders how these people, dislodged from their country and family under such horrble circumstances, were able to maintain their sanity and contribute so much to rational thinking. By the war's end, Tarski was established as a professor of mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley. There, Tarski built an empire in logic and methodology. Tarski is remembered for his contributions to reasoning, truth and proof. In addition to Tarski's biography, the book contains brief snippets of his various contributions to logic, and a huge, curated list of bibliographic references. I thank my student Sukanto Kole , who gifted me this precious gem, about an inspiring person. | |
