Kurt Grelling
| Kurt Grelling | |
|---|---|
| Born |
2 March 1886 Berlin |
| Died | September 1942 Auschwitz concentration camp |
| Era | 20th-century philosophy |
| Region | Western Philosophy |
| School | Berlin Circle |
|
Main interests
|
Philosophy of science, Logic |
|
Influences
|
|
|
Influenced
|
|
Kurt Grelling (2 March 1886 – September 1942) was a German logician and philosopher, member of the Berlin Circle.
Kurt Grelling was born on 2 March 1886 in Berlin. His father, the Doctor of Jurisprudence Richard Grelling, and his mother, Margarethe (née Simon), were Jewish. Shortly after his arrival in 1905 at University of Göttingen, Grelling began a collaboration with philosopher Leonard Nelson, with whom he tried to solve Russell's paradox, which had shaken the foundations of mathematics when it was announced in 1903. Their 1908 paper included new paradoxes, including a semantic paradox that was named the Grelling–Nelson paradox.
He received his doctorate in mathematics from the same university in 1910 with a dissertation on the development of arithmetics in axiomatic set theory, advised by David Hilbert. In a recorded interview with Herbert Enderton, Alfred Tarski mentions a meeting he had with Grelling in 1938, and says that Grelling was the author of the earliest textbook in set theory, probably but wrongly referring to this dissertation, since William Henry Young and Grace Chisholm Young's Set Theory was published in 1906.
As a skilled linguist, Grelling translated philosophical works from French, Italian and English to German, including four of Bertrand Russell's works. He became a strong proponent of Russell's writings thereafter.
...
Wikipedia