Alfred Tarski
Life and Logic

A frank, vivid picture of a personally and professionally passionate man, interlaced with an account of his major scientific achievements.

Anita Burdman Feferman (Author), Solomon Feferman (Author)

9780521714013, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 7 April 2008

432 pages
22.6 x 15.4 x 2.3 cm, 0.58 kg

'Here we have a vivid portrait of Alfred Tarski as a man of enormous energy and focus, devoted to logic, women and slivovitz, entirely lacking in self-doubt, and ambivalent about his Jewish heritage. The Fefermans provide a richly textured account of the cultural, intellectual, and political worlds in which Tarski lived -- first in interwar Poland and then in Berkeley, where he built his logic empire. They also draw highly individualized portraits of the many people who figured in Tarski's life and career. The work that made Tarski one of logic's giants is lucidly explained in a series of compact interludes. This is a wonderful book on many levels.' Elliot Sober, University of Wisconsin, Madison

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. 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. From the cafés 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.

1. The two Tarskis
2. Independence and university
Interlude I. The Banach-Tarski paradox, set theory and the axiom of choice
3. Polot! The Polish attribute
Interlude II. The completeness and decidability of algebra and geometry
4. A wider sphere of influence
Interlude III. Truth and definability
5. How the 'Unity of Science' saved Tarski's life
6. Berkeley is so far from Princeton
7. Building a school
Interlude IV. The publication campaigns
8 'Papa Tarski' and his students
9. Three meetings and two departures
10. Logic and methodology, center stage
11. Heydays
Interlude V. Model theory and the 1963 symposium
12. Around the world
13. Los Angeles and Berkeley
Interlude VI. Algebras of logic
14. A decade of honors
15. The last times.

Subject Areas: Mathematical logic [PBCD], Philosophy of mathematics [PBB]