This volume offers insights into the development of mathematical logic over the last century. Arising from a special session of the history of logic at an American Mathematical Society meeting, the chapters explore technical innovations, the philosophical consequences of work during the period, and the historical and social context in which the logicians worked. The discussions herein will appeal to mathematical logicians and historians of mathematics, as well as philosophers and historians of science. "โฆthe standard of the articles in Drucker's book is high and the book can be recommended to anyone interested in the history and development of mathematical logic this century." - Newsletter of the New Zealand Mathematical Society "โฆthis is an important book. It exposes the richness of ideas and viewpoints, the difficult and not always direct pathways taken in the development of mathematical logic in the last century, and the various factors which did and continue to affect that development." โModern Logic "Logicians with a side-interest in the development of their field will enjoy it, and will not find it taxing in either mathematical or historical detail. The human as well as the scientific side of the growth of important ideas and institutions are treated at an expansive level." โJournal of Symbolic Logic
CONTENT
The Problem of Elimination in the Algebra of Logic -- Peirce and the Law of Distribution -- The First Russell Paradox -- Principia Mathematica and the Development of Automated Theorem Proving -- Oswald Veblen and the Origins of Mathematical Logic at Princeton -- The Lรถwenheim-Skolem Theorem, Theories of Quantification, and Proof Theory -- The Reception of Gรถdel's Incompleteness Theorems -- Gรถdel's and Some Other Examples of Problem Transmutation -- The Development of Self-Reference: Lรถb's Theorem -- The Unintended Interpretations of Intuitionistic Logic -- The Writing of Introduction to Metamathematics -- In Memoriam: Haskell Brooks Curry -- The Work of J. Richard Bรผchi