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Portrait of Young Gödel

Education, First Steps in Logic, the Problem of Completeness

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  • © 2024

Overview

Authors:
  1. Jan von Plato

    1. Department of Philosophy, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

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  • Deals with Gödel's development from high school to his studies with Carnap in Vienna
  • Based upon primary sources from the archives at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton
  • Covers Gödel's dissertation on the proof of completeness of predicate logic and his revolutionary incompleteness proof

Part of the book series: Vienna Circle Institute Library (VCIL, volume 9)

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Table of contents (5 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-ix
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  2. At high school and university

    • Jan von Plato
    Pages 1-33

  3. First steps in logic

    • Jan von Plato
    Pages 35-76

  4. The problem of completeness

    • Jan von Plato
    Pages 77-105

  5. The shorthand notebooks

    • Jan von Plato
    Pages 107-248

  6. Lectures and seminars on completeness

    • Jan von Plato
    Pages 249-300

  7. Back Matter

    Pages 301-307
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Keywords

About this book

In the summer of 1928, Kurt Gödel (1906–1978) embarked on his logical journey that would bring him world fame in a mere three years. By early 1929, he had solved an outstanding problem in logic, namely the question of the completeness of the axioms and rules of quantificational logic. He then went on to extend the result to the axiom system of arithmetic but found, instead of completeness, his famous incompleteness theorem that got published in 1931. It belongs to the most iconic achievements of 20th century science and has been instrumental in the development of theories of formal languages and algorithmic computability – two essential components in the birth of the information society.


This book explores Gödel’s way from an exceptional high-school student to a firmly established young logician. Essays in Gödel’s hand from the high school show that his central philosophical and scientific convictions were formed early on, before his university studies. Particular emphasis is laid on the course that made Gödel one of the foremost logicians of all times. The scientific biography of young Gödel is followed by English translations from Gödel’s German Gabelsberger shorthand of all his early preserved notebooks on logic and related topics.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Department of Philosophy, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Jan von Plato

About the author

Jan von Plato is professor of philosophy at the University of Helsinki. He has written several books on proof theory and the development of logic, including Elements of Logical Reasoning and The Great Formal Machinery Works. His series of books on Gödel began in 2020 with Can Mathematics Be Proved Consistent? Portrait of Young Gödel is the fifth book in this series. 

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Portrait of Young Gödel

  • Book Subtitle: Education, First Steps in Logic, the Problem of Completeness

  • Authors: Jan von Plato

  • Series Title: Vienna Circle Institute Library

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-51971-0

  • Publisher: Springer Cham

  • eBook Packages: History, History (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-51970-3Published: 07 February 2024

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-031-51973-4Due: 09 March 2024

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-51971-0Published: 06 February 2024

  • Series ISSN: 1571-3083

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: IX, 307

  • Topics: History, general, Logic, History and Philosophical Foundations of Physics

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