The Origin of the Group in Logic and the Methodology of Science

The Group in Logic and the Methodology of Science at UC Berkeley was founded in 1957. It has been a key institutional element in carrying out Tarski’s vision for making UC Berkeley one of the most important centers of logical research in the world. In this brief history, I look at the emergence of the Group in Logic with an eye towards understanding the circumstances that made it possible

Emigration of mathematicians from outside German-speaking academia 1933-1963, supported by the Society for the Protection of Science and Learning

Racial and political persecution of German-speaking scholars from 1933 onward has already been extensively studied. The archives of the Society for the Protection of Science and Learning (SPSL), which are deposited in the Western Manuscripts Collection at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, is a rich source of information about the emigration of European scientists, also those who did not come from German-speaking institutions. This is an account of the support given by the SPSL to the persecuted mathematicians among them. The challenges faced by these emigrants included, in addition to anti-Semitism and xenophobia in their countries both of origin and of destination, the restricted financial means of the SPSL, and the sometimes arbitrary assessment of academic merits. Der rassistischen und politischen Verfolgung deutschsprachiger Wissenschaftler nach 1933 wurden bereits umfassende Studien gewidmet. Die Akten der Society for the Protection of Science and Learning (SPSL), die bei der Western Manuscripts Collection der Bodleian Library in Oxford deponiert sind, bieten umfangreiche Informationen zur Emigration auch derjenigen europäischen Wissenschaftler, die nicht deutschsprachig sozialisiert waren. Hier soll die Unterstützung der SPSL für verfolgte nicht-deutschsprachige Mathematiker beschrieben werden. Diesen Emigranten standen verschiedene Hindernisse entgegen; insbesondere Antisemitismus und Xenophobie in den Ursprungsländern und auch Empfangsländern, die zeitweilig problematische ökonomische Situation der SPSL, sowie einige Willkürlichkeiten in der Beurteilung akademischer Meriten

Tarski's Q-relation algebras and Thompson's groups

The connections between Tarski's Q-relation algebras and Thompson's groups F, T, V, and monoid M are reviewed here, along with Jonsson-Tarski algebras, fork algebras, true pairing algebras, and tabular relation algebras. All of these are related to the finitization problem and Tarski's formalization of set theory without variables. Most of the technical details occur in the variety of J-algebras, which is obtained from relation algebras by omitting union and complementation and adopting a set of axioms created by Jonsson. Every relation algebra or J-algebra that contains a pair of conjugated quasiprojections satisfying the Domain and Unicity conditions, such as those that arise from J\'onsson-Tarski algebras or fork algebras, will also contain homomorphic images of F, T, V, and M. The representability of tabular relation algebras is extended here to J-algebras, using a notion of tabularity equivalent among relation algebras to the original definition.Comment: 64 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl

First-Order Logic Foundation of Relativity Theories

Motivation and perspective for an exciting new research direction interconnecting logic, spacetime theory, relativity--including such revolutionary areas as black hole physics, relativistic computers, new cosmology--are presented in this paper. We would like to invite the logician reader to take part in this grand enterprise of the new century. Besides general perspective and motivation, we present initial results in this direction.Comment: 25 pages, 4 figure