Abstract:
In this lecture commemorating the birth of Alfred Tarski and the deathof Kurt Gödel,wewill compare the eminent founders of modern logic: Kurt Gödel and Alfred Tarski.

Kurt Gödel has beendriven by thethe possibility that the individual thinking might transgress its ownlimits. The solutions of mathematical problems are the models, not theaims of his thinking. He strongly believed in the simplicity of allsolutions maybe beyond language. Therefore he chose very carefully thenext generation scientists with whom he communicated (basically GeorgKreisel, Gaisi Takeuti and Hao Wang).

Alfred Tarski on the other hand grew up in the logical traditions ofPoland. He considered logic as a mathematical subject based on amathematical language, which is very able to contribute to mathematicsas algebra, topology etc. He emphasized the formal semanticalrelations as entailment, satisfaction and truth. He educated manystudents and influencednot only logic and mathematics but also formal linguistics by histhorough mathematical rigor.

About the speaker:

Matthias Baaz is a world-renowned logician. He studied MathematicalLogic and Astronomy at the University of Vienna and changed to theVienna University of Technology where he currently serves as chair ofcomputational logic within the Faculty of Mathematics. The mainresearch field of Matthias Baaz is proof theory, but he works also inGödel logics and Automated Theorem Proving. He has made manycontributions in these fields. His main scientific advisor for most ofhis scientific life has been Georg Kreisel, one of the only threelogicians of the next generation Kurt Gödel had an intensivecommunication with. Matthias Baaz is the Executive Vice President ofthe Kurt Gödel Society. He has organized many conferences for the KurtGödel Society, the largest event being the Vienna Summer of Logic 2014with more than 2500 participants.