Gottlob Frege

Gottlob Frege (1848-1925), German mathematician and philosopher, the founder of modern mathematical logic. Frege was born in Wismar, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. He studied at the universities of Jena and Göttingen, later joining the mathematics faculty at Jena. Frege sought to derive the principles of arithmetic from the principles of logic. Faced with the ambiguity of ordinary language and the inadequacy of available logical systems, he invented many symbolic notations, such as quantifiers and variables, thus providing the foundation for modern mathematical logic. His work greatly influenced the British philosopher Bertrand Russell. Conceptual Notation (1879; trans. 1972) is regarded as the most important of his publications, which also include The Foundations of Arithmetic (1884; trans. 1950) and Grundgesetze der Arithmetik (2 volumes; 1893-1903), portions of which have been translated as The Basic Laws of Arithmetic: An Exposition of the System (1965).