Gottlob Frege

(8 November, 1848 — 26 July, 1925)

Frege invented classical logic; something most first year philosophy students still hold against him. He was rather proud of his invention. In fact he started to become a little obsessed with it. Soon he started theorising that almost everything is some form of logic. It started innocently enough with the claim that arithmetic was reducible to logic, but soon spiralled out of control when he started to claim that people and even water are made of logic.

Frege's attempted reduction of arithmetic into logic failed when Bertrand Russell discovered a contradiction in Frege's basic laws: he broke the news to Frege in an eloquently written letter soon after discovering the flaw. Frege replied soon after with a single sheet of paper which simply said “You bastard”.

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Written By: Mark Wales

Created: 2nd February, 2008 | Last Updated: 3rd February, 2008

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(Image of Gottlob Frege is public domain.)

Photograph

A photo of Gottlob Frege

Frege would only shave once a year.

Stats

  • Main Contributions:

    Classical Logic

  • Quotation:

    “Sometimes I seem to see a difficulty, but then again I don't see it.”

  • Key Areas:

    Philosophy of mathematics, Philosophy of logic, Philosophy of Language

  • Annoying Habits:

    Wrote everything in formal notation; even christmas cards.

  • Nicknames:

    King Logic, Logico the Wise

Top Trumps

  • Beard: 4
  • Fame: 5
  • Logic: 6
  • Readability: 3
  • Contribution: 5

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