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Alfred Tarski

Alfred Tarski Biography

Logician

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“However the machine would permit us to test the hypothesis for any special value of n. We could carry out such tests for a sequence of consecutive values n=2,3,.. up to, say, n=100. If the result of at least one test were negative, the hypothesis would prove to be false; otherwise our confidence in the hypothesis would increase, and we should feel encouraged to attempt establishing the hypothesis, instead of trying to construct a counterexample.”

IfsFeelsShouldTryingScienceValuesResultsSpecialProveNegativeTestsMachinesIncreaseMathematicsPermitConstructsHypothesisSequenceConsecutive
Author:Alfred Tarski
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“If a mathematician wishes to disparage the work of one of his colleagues, say, A, the most effective method he finds for doing this is to ask where the results can be applied. The hard pressed man, with his back against the wall, finally unearths the researches of another mathematician B as the locus of the application of his own results. If next B is plagued with a similar question, he will refer to another mathematician C. After a few steps of this kind we find ourselves referred back to the researches of A, and in this way the chain closes.”

IfsMenWayKindHardScienceNextAsksWishResultsStepsHard WorkWallResearchMethodChainsApplicationMathematicianColleaguesBack Against The Wall
Author:Alfred Tarski
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“... semantics ... is a sober and modest discipline which has no pretensions of being a universal patent-medicine for all the ills and diseases of mankind, whether imaginary or real. You will not find in semantics any remedy for decayed teeth or illusions of grandeur or class conflict. Nor is semantics a device for establishing that everyone except the speaker and his friends is speaking nonsense”

RealClassMankindDisciplineConflictDiseaseIllusionUniversalMedicineTeethNonsenseDevicesSpeakersImaginaryRemedyModestSelf DisciplineSoberGrandeurPretensionPatentsReal YouSemanticsClass ConflictIllusions Of Grandeur
Author:Alfred Tarski
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“It may be unpopular and out-of-date to say-but I do not think that a scientific result which gives us a better understanding of the world and makes it more harmonious in our eyes should be held in lower esteem than, say, an invention which reduces the cost of paving roads, or improves household plumbing.”

ThinkingWorldGivingShouldMayEyeScienceUnderstandingResultsCostInventionEsteemHouseholdHarmoniousPlumbingPaving
Book:Alfred Tarski, Collected Papers: 1935-1944
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