Course : Topics in History of Modern Logic (HPL4)

This is the page for the academic year 2025-26 (instructor: Philippos Papayannopoulos). 

Our contemporary information society owes much of its existence to a largely hidden yet crucial line of development: the theoretical study of logic and the foundations of mathematics during the 19th century and the first four decades of the 20th century. In the course we will trace that development in some depth, beginning with the emergence of the ideas of “axiomatic theories” and “formal proofs” in mathematics, moving through the precise formulation of the notions of “formal language” and “formal deduction,” and culminating in the groundbreaking concept of the “programmable computing machine.”