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Brief Lives

Alfred Tarski (1901-1983)

Alistair MacFarlane thinks through the life of a godfather of logic.

Together with Aristotle, Gottlob Frege, and Kurt Gödel, Alfred Tarski is widely regarded as one of the greatest logicians of all time – an opinion he wholeheartedly endorsed. Like Gödel, Tarski revolutionised twentieth century logic, through his conception of semantic truth, the theory of models, and many advances in metalogic (the logic of logic). Yet unlike the reclusive, painfully shy Gödel, he was self-important, vain, and grandiloquent, in both manner and speech. Entering a packed room, he would walk in an undeviating straight line through the crowd like Moses parting the Red Sea. Short in stature yet grand in presence, he was often described as Napoleonic.

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