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Alfred Tarski
Times obituary
Alfred Tarski, the eminent mathematician and logician, died in San Francisco on October 26. He was 82.
Tarski was best known for his definition of truth in formalized languages, together with his proof that any comprehensive definition of truth within a natural language must lead to contradictions. This work was published in Polish in 1933, and it soon set the direction for all modern philosophical discussions of truth. With Abraham Robinson and Anatolii Mal'tsev, Tarski created the mathematical theory of models.
In his research on decidable and undecidable axiomatic theories, he was one of the pioneers of computer science; already in 1930, he showed that a machine could be built that solved all problems of elementary geometry. He published over 300 books, papers, and abstracts on topics ranging from set theory to geometry and universal algebra.
Alfred Tarski was born in Warsaw on January 14, 1901. He received his PhD at Warsaw University in 1924. In 1939, he set out on a lecture tour of the United States, but the outbreak of war prevented his return to Poland. He joined the University of California at Berkeley in 1942 and remained there for the rest of his career.
In 1958, he founded the pioneering interdisciplinary Group in Logic and the Methodology of Science at Berkeley. Among many international honors, he was elected a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy in 1966.
His seminars at Berkeley fast became a powerhouse of logic. His students, many of them now distinguished mathematicians, recall the awesome energy with which he would coax and cajole their best work out of them, always demanding the highest standards of clarity and precision. In the few weeks before he died, he completed a new book on set theory with the help of a younger mathematician.
He is survived by his wife, Maria, his son, Jan, and his daughter, Ina Tarski Ehrenfeucht.
Alfred Tarski, the eminent mathematician and logician, died in San Francisco on October 26. He was 82.
Tarski was best known for his definition of truth in formalized languages, together with his proof that any comprehensive definition of truth within a natural language must lead to contradictions. This work was published in Polish in 1933, and it soon set the direction for all modern philosophical discussions of truth. With Abraham Robinson and Anatolii Mal'tsev, Tarski created the mathematical theory of models.
In his research on decidable and undecidable axiomatic theories, he was one of the pioneers of computer science; already in 1930, he showed that a machine could be built that solved all problems of elementary geometry. He published over 300 books, papers, and abstracts on topics ranging from set theory to geometry and universal algebra.
Alfred Tarski was born in Warsaw on January 14, 1901. He received his PhD at Warsaw University in 1924. In 1939, he set out on a lecture tour of the United States, but the outbreak of war prevented his return to Poland. He joined the University of California at Berkeley in 1942 and remained there for the rest of his career.
In 1958, he founded the pioneering interdisciplinary Group in Logic and the Methodology of Science at Berkeley. Among many international honors, he was elected a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy in 1966.
His seminars at Berkeley fast became a powerhouse of logic. His students, many of them now distinguished mathematicians, recall the awesome energy with which he would coax and cajole their best work out of them, always demanding the highest standards of clarity and precision. In the few weeks before he died, he completed a new book on set theory with the help of a younger mathematician.
He is survived by his wife, Maria, his son, Jan, and his daughter, Ina Tarski Ehrenfeucht.
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