Address at the Princeton University Bicentennial Conference on Problems of Mathematics (December 17–19, 1946), By Alfred Tarski (Q4953233)

The editor explains the circumstances under which Tarski's address was delivered. Manuscripts were found in his Nachlass by J. Wolenski; they comprise the text of the address, a summary version and the ensuing discussion. Some may be transcriptions from recordings now lost; none was definitively revised by Tarski. The programme of the conference, and the part of the conference report related to this address, are also reprinted from a pamphlet published soon after the event by Princeton University Press. Tarski chose to describe various (un)decidability problems in certain logics and branches of mathematics; the latter then included Cantor's continuum hypothesis, and Hilbert's tenth problem on equations in Diophantine arithmetic. He presented his problems as tasks, largely eschewing the philosophical consequences of any resultant findings. The editor provides not only detailed introduction but also many footnotes elaborating details of the text. However, she cannot be correct in saying that `Tarski was very eager to destroy the border Hilbert had put up between mathematics and metamathematics' and show logic at work in solving mathematical problems, since such destruction would lead at once to paradoxes; a preferable locution would be `eager to complement the distinction that Hilbert had put up between mathematics and metamathematics'\(\dots\).