Alfred Tarski
by Anita Burdman Feferman, Solomon Feferman · first published 2008
83% recommend17% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Readable biography of the logician Alfred Tarski, cited as a good pick among biographies of mathematicians; suits readers interested in the people behind modern logic and mathematics.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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Can anyone recommend other interesting biographies of mathematicians? I personally enjoyed this biography of Alfred Tarski (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Tarski): http://www.amazon.com/Alfred-Tarski-Cambridge-Concise-Histor...
on “‘The Fractalist,’ Benoit B. Mandelbrot’s Math Memoir” ↗…(Saul Kripke) Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (Robert Pirsig) There are others, and a lot of essays (by thinkers like Bertrand Russell, Carl Hempel, Hilary Putnam, WVO Quine, Karl Popper, Alfred Tarski, Gottlob Frege, David Chalmers, Daniel Dennett, Michel Foucault, Jean Baudrillard, Mikhail Bakunin, CS Peirce, and David Hume, among many others), but these seem apropos as they most readily came to mind.
on “Ask HN: Which books do you consider real gems in your field of work/study?” ↗…of the authors of HtDP: CS19. You can find it here: https://learnaifromscratch.github.io/software. I have two favorite math books that have helped me understand more math: 1. Introduction to Logic by Alfred Tarski 2. Vector Calculus by Hubbard and Hubbard What are yours?
on “As a self learner which courses, books, etc have rewired your mental model?” ↗I personally really like Alfred Tarski's book "Introduction to Logic and to the Methodology of Deductive Sciences". The first Polish edition was written in 1936 and the English version is still available from Dover: https://store.doverpublications.com/048628462x.html
on “Annotated version of Boole's 1847 “Algebra of Logic” (2019) [pdf]” ↗Well said. Also i highly recommend everybody to read the great logician Alfred Tarski's classic book Introduction to Logic: And to the Methodology of Deductive Sciences to really understand "Logic" which is what Formal Reasoning is based on.
on “Formal Reasoning [pdf]” ↗…off by the "implication" logical operator (evaluates to True when the antecedent is False irrespective of the consequent). But if you use some actual domain examples then it becomes clear why it is so. Alfred Tarski's classic book mentioned above does a good job of building up logic from the first principles and hence is a great companion to any standard textbook.
on “Formal Reasoning [pdf]” ↗…following two books to study Logic from the beginning (for a layman); Logic: An Introduction to Elementary Logic by Wilfrid Hodges. Introduction to Logic: and to the Methodology of Deductive Sciences by Alfred Tarski.
on “Navier-Stokes Announcement” ↗…mentions his name as well, albeit without much detail. Chwistek seems a fascinating character: like his contemporary Witkacy, he was an artist as well as a logician, and according to the biography of Alfred Tarski by the Fefermans [2], was appointed to a professorship at Lvov in 1930 which Tarski was also in the running for; apparently a letter of recommendation from Russell was the decisive factor (see p. 67 of…
on “Stephan Wolfram: 100 Years Since Principia Mathematica” ↗