Begriffsschrift

Begriffsschrift is the name of a book on logic by Gottlob Frege published in 1879. The name Begriffsschrift is usually translated as concept writing or concept notation; the full title of the book identifies it as "a formula language, modelled on that of arithmetic, of pure thought."

Frege defines a logical calculus to support his research in the foundations of mathematics. Begriffsschrift is both the name of the book and the calculus defined therein.

The calculus introduced quantifiers, and is essentially classical predicate logic, albeit in an idiosyncratic two-dimensional notation: connectives and quantifiers are written using lines connecting formulas, rather than the symbols ¬, and ∧, and ∀ in use today. Nonetheless, some vestige of this notation survives: the symbol <math>\vdash<math> that logicians informally call "turnstyle" is derived from Frege's "Inhaltsstrich".

This little book is arguably the most significant publication in logic since Aristotle.

In the Tractatus Logico Philosophicus, Ludwig Wittgenstein pays homage to Frege in that he uses the term Begriffsschrift as a synonym for logical formalism.

References

• Gottlob Frege. Begriffsschrift, eine der arithmetischen nachgebildete Formelsprache des reinen Denkens, Halle 1879.

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