Kurt Grelling (2 March 1886 – September 1942) was a German
logician
Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from premises ...
and
philosopher
A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...
, member of the
Berlin Circle.
Life and work
Kurt Grelling was born on 2 March 1886 in Berlin. His father, the Doctor of Jurisprudence
Richard Grelling Richard Grelling (11 June 1853 − 14 January 1929) was a German lawyer, writer and pacifist who wrote the international best selling book ''J'Accuse'' in World War I, publicly criticizing the actions of Germany for waging a war of aggression in Eu ...
, and his mother, Margarethe (née Simon), were Jewish. Shortly after his arrival in 1905 at
University of Göttingen
The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...
, Grelling began a collaboration with philosopher
Leonard Nelson, with whom he tried to solve
Russell's paradox
In mathematical logic, Russell's paradox (also known as Russell's antinomy) is a set-theoretic paradox discovered by the British philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell in 1901. Russell's paradox shows that every set theory that contains ...
, which had shaken the
foundations of mathematics
Foundations of mathematics is the study of the philosophical and logical and/or algorithmic basis of mathematics, or, in a broader sense, the mathematical investigation of what underlies the philosophical theories concerning the nature of mathe ...
when it was announced in 1903. Their 1908 paper included new
paradox
A paradox is a logically self-contradictory statement or a statement that runs contrary to one's expectation. It is a statement that, despite apparently valid reasoning from true premises, leads to a seemingly self-contradictory or a logically u ...
es, including a semantic paradox that was named the
Grelling–Nelson paradox.
He received his doctorate in
mathematics
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
from the same university in 1910 with a
PhD dissertation
A thesis ( : theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144 ...
on the development of
arithmetic
Arithmetic () is an elementary part of mathematics that consists of the study of the properties of the traditional operations on numbers— addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, exponentiation, and extraction of roots. In the 19th ...
in
axiomatic set theory
Set theory is the branch of mathematical logic that studies sets, which can be informally described as collections of objects. Although objects of any kind can be collected into a set, set theory, as a branch of mathematics, is mostly concern ...
, advised by
David Hilbert
David Hilbert (; ; 23 January 1862 – 14 February 1943) was a German mathematician, one of the most influential mathematicians of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Hilbert discovered and developed a broad range of fundamental ideas in many ...
. In a recorded interview with
Herbert Enderton,
Alfred Tarski
Alfred Tarski (, born Alfred Teitelbaum;School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St Andrews ''School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St Andrews''. January 14, 1901 – October 26, 1983) was a Polish-American logician a ...
mentions a meeting he had with Grelling in 1938, and says that Grelling was the author of the earliest textbook in
set theory
Set theory is the branch of mathematical logic that studies sets, which can be informally described as collections of objects. Although objects of any kind can be collected into a set, set theory, as a branch of mathematics, is mostly concern ...
, probably but wrongly referring to this dissertation, since
William Henry Young
William Henry Young FRS (London, 20 October 1863 – Lausanne, 7 July 1942) was an English mathematician. Young was educated at City of London School and Peterhouse, Cambridge. He worked on measure theory, Fourier series, differential calcul ...
and
Grace Chisholm Young
Grace Chisholm Young (née Chisholm, 15 March 1868 – 29 March 1944) was an English mathematician. She was educated at Girton College, Cambridge, England and continued her studies at Göttingen University in Germany, where in 1895 she receive ...
'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
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, a ...
's works. He became a strong proponent of Russell's writings thereafter.
From 1911 to 1922 Grelling published exclusively journalistic articles in publications connected with the
Social Democratic Party of Germany
The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany.
Saskia Esken has been ...
.
In 1915 his father, Richard Grelling, wrote the anti-war book ''J'Accuse'', condemning the actions of the
Central Powers
The Central Powers, also known as the Central Empires,german: Mittelmächte; hu, Központi hatalmak; tr, İttifak Devletleri / ; bg, Централни сили, translit=Tsentralni sili was one of the two main coalitions that fought in W ...
.
It enjoyed huge sales outside Germany. Richard followed this success up with ''Das Verbrechen'' (''The Crime''), in which he attacked his critics, who included Kurt Grelling.
From 1924 onwards Grelling's publications were exclusively in the field of
positivist philosophy.
Unable to find a university position in either Göttingen or
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...
, Grelling had to teach mathematics,
philosophy
Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. ...
and
physics
Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which ...
in secondary schools. Nevertheless, he worked with
Hans Reichenbach
Hans Reichenbach (September 26, 1891 – April 9, 1953) was a leading philosopher of science, educator, and proponent of logical empiricism. He was influential in the areas of science, education, and of logical empiricism. He founded the ''Ges ...
in planning the meetings of the Berlin Circle, which was closely associated with the
Vienna Circle
The Vienna Circle (german: Wiener Kreis) of Logical Empiricism was a group of elite philosophers and scientists drawn from the natural and social sciences, logic and mathematics who met regularly from 1924 to 1936 at the University of Vienna, ch ...
. In 1933, Reichenbach emigrated to
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula ...
and the
Nazis
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in N ...
forced Grelling to retire. But he struggled to keep the Berlin Circle active by organizing small seminars and colloquia.
Grelling collaborated with
Kurt Gödel
Kurt Friedrich Gödel ( , ; April 28, 1906 – January 14, 1978) was a logician, mathematician, and philosopher. Considered along with Aristotle and Gottlob Frege to be one of the most significant logicians in history, Gödel had an imm ...
and in 1937 he published an article in which he defended Gödel's
first incompleteness theorem against an erroneous interpretation, according to which Gödel's theorem is a paradox as Russell's paradox.
Although many of his relatives and friends had fled Germany, he did not think seriously about leaving until 1937, in which year he went to
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
to work with
Paul Oppenheim, this time writing several papers on the analysis of scientific explanation and on
Gestalt psychology
Gestalt-psychology, gestaltism, or configurationism is a school of psychology that emerged in the early twentieth century in Austria and Germany as a theory of perception that was a rejection of basic principles of Wilhelm Wundt's and Edward ...
.
On 10 May 1940, the first day of the German invasion in Belgium, Grelling was arrested. He was deported to southern France, where he was interned for over two years under the
Vichy regime
Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its ter ...
. Oppenheim and
Hempel tried to help Grelling by securing an appointment for him at the New School for Social Research in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. News of the position and a visa to the United States reached the camp where Grelling had been joined by his wife Greta, who had refused to divorce him for safety reasons. But U.S. immigration officials were perplexed by Grelling's alleged propensity towards Communism, so there was a delay that was fatal to Grelling. He and his wife were shipped to
Auschwitz
Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed int ...
, arriving there on September 18, 1942 and perishing in the
gas chamber
A gas chamber is an apparatus for killing humans or other animals with gas, consisting of a sealed chamber into which a poisonous or asphyxiant gas is introduced. Poisonous agents used include hydrogen cyanide and carbon monoxide.
History
...
s that day or soon thereafter.
Biography
(in German) at Berlin Stolperstein
A (; plural ; literally 'stumbling stone', metaphorically a 'stumbling block') is a sett-size, concrete cube bearing a brass plate inscribed with the name and life dates of victims of Nazi extermination or persecution.
The project, initia ...
site
Selected publications
*
''Die Axiome der Arithmetik mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der Beziehungen zur Mengenlehre''
PhD dissertation, Göttingen University Press, 1910.
* ''Anti-J'accuse''. Eine deutsche Antwort. Zürich: Art. Institut Orell Füssli, 1916.
"Gibt es eine Gödelsche Antinomie?"
in: ''Theoria'' 3 (1937):297–306.
Notes
References
*Nikolay Milkov (2013), "The Berlin Group and the Vienna Circle: Affinities and Divergences", in: N. Milkov & V. Peckhaus (eds.), ''The Berlin Group and the Philosophy of Logical Empiricism. Springer'', pp. 3–32.
*C. G. Hempel, "Autobiografia intellettuale" in ''Oltre il positivismo logico''. Armando: Rome, 1988. (Text of an interview Hempel gave to Richard Noland in 1982, published for the first time in Italian translation in 1988.)
*Abraham S. Luchins and Edith H. Luchins, http://gestalttheory.net/archive/kgrelbio.html "Kurt Grelling: Steadfast scholar in a time of madness"">!---http://web.archive.org/web/20041022172937/http://enabling.org:80/ia/gestalt/kgbio.html--->http://gestalttheory.net/archive/kgrelbio.html "Kurt Grelling: Steadfast scholar in a time of madness" ''Journal of Gestalt Theory'', Vol. 22, Apr 2000, pp 228–281 — Includes
picture gallery
*Günther Sandner, "The Berlin Group in the Making: Politics and Philosophy in the Early Works of Hans Reichenbach and Kurt Grelling". 10th International Congress of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science
The International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science (HOPOS) is a philosophical organization for promoting the study of the history of philosophy of science. The society promotes exchange of ideas among scholars through meetings, jour ...
(HOPOS), Ghent, July 2014
Abstract
External links
*
at Murzim.net
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grelling, Kurt
20th-century German philosophers
German people who died in Auschwitz concentration camp
1886 births
1942 deaths
Jewish philosophers
German logicians
German people executed in Nazi concentration camps
Writers from Berlin
People killed by gas chamber by Nazi Germany
German male writers
Vienna Circle
German social democrats
German Jews who died in the Holocaust