Rating: Not rated
Tags: Philosophy, General, History & Surveys, Lang:en
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Added: November 5, 2021
Modified: November 5, 2021
Summary
The fundamental texts of the great classical period in
modern logic, some of them never before available in English
translation, are here gathered together for the first time.
Modern logic, heralded by Leibniz, may be said to have been
initiated by Boole, De Morgan, and Jevons, but it was the
publication in 1879 of Gottlob Frege’s Begriffsschrift
that opened a great epoch in the history of logic by
presenting, in full-fledged form, the propositional calculus
and quantification theory. Frege’s book, translated in
its entirety, begins the present volume. The emergence of two
new fields, set theory and foundations of mathematics, on the
borders of logic, mathematics, and philosophy, is depicted by
the texts that follow. Peano and Dedekind illustrate the
trend that led to Principia Mathematica. Burali-Forti,
Cantor, Russell, Richard, and König mark the appearance
of the modern paradoxes. Hilbert, Russell, and Zermelo show
various ways of overcoming these paradoxes and initiate,
respectively, proof theory, the theory of types, and
axiomatic set theory. Skolem generalizes
Löwenheim’s theorem, and he and Fraenkel amend
Zermelo’s axiomatization of set theory, while von
Neumann offers a somewhat different system. The controversy
between Hubert and Brouwer during the twenties is presented
in papers of theirs and in others by Weyl, Bernays,
Ackermann, and Kolmogorov. The volume concludes with papers
by Herbrand and by Gödel, including the latter’s
famous incompleteness paper. Of the forty-five contributions
here collected all but five are presented in extenso. Those
not originally written in English have been translated with
exemplary care and exactness; the translators are themselves
mathematical logicians as well as skilled interpreters of
sometimes obscure texts. Each paper is introduced by a note
that sets it in perspective, explains its importance, and
points out difficulties in interpretation. Editorial comments
and footnotes are interpolated where needed, and an extensive
bibliography is included.