Treffpunkt für FreundInnen der Logik im “Heuer am Karlsplatz” während des Vienna Summer of Logic 2014 • Erläuterungen in exakt einer Stunde live und vor Publikum • Reverenz an antikes philosophisches Symposium

There are two more dates of LogicLounge coming up:

• July 22: Drones with a guilty conscience: the ethics of Artificial Intelligence
  Moshe Vardi (Rice U) – Herbert Hrachovec (U Wien)
• July 23: Female logics
  Magdalena Ortiz (TU Wien), Ruzica Piskac (Yale U) – Tanja Traxler (Der Standard)

http://vsl2014.at/logiclounge/

Photos © VSL 2014 / Photography: Nadja Meister

Photos © VSL 2014 / Photography: Sara Meister

© Münze Österreich AG

To us, Vienna is known as a city of logic. But to many visitors, Vienna is better known as a city of music. And so, on Thursday evening the first of two VSL Joint Award Ceremony took place accompanied by the world premiere of Tribute to Kurt Gödel by Michael F.P. Huber and performed by the excellent Adamas String Quartet.

This VSL Joint Award Ceremony brought together the ceremonies of the Kurt Gödel Research Prize Fellowships (organized by the Kurt Gödel Society with support from the John Templeton Foundation) and part one of the 1st FLoC Olympic Games. Winners were awarded one of the prestigious Kurt Gödel medals. Last but not least, Moshe Vardi’s birthday was celebrated with a surprise FLoC-styled birthday cake. Congratulations to everyone!

The second VSL Joint Award Ceremony will take place on Monday July 21, 16:30–19:00 in Main Building, Kuppelsaal.

Kurt Gödel Research Prize Fellowships

FLoC Olympic Games

Vardi Fest

All photos © VSL 2014 / Photography: Nadja Meister

Panelists: Nina Amla, National Science Foundation. Georg Gottlob, Oxford University, Vienna University of Technology. Falk Reckling, Austrian Science Fund. Sweitze Roffel, Elsevier. Andrei Voronkov, University of Manchester.
Moderator: Moshe Vardi, Rice University

Photos © VSL 2014 / Photography: Sara Meister

Photos © VSL 2014 / Photography: Nadja Meister

Photos © VSL 2014 / Photography: Nadja Meister

When John F. Kennedy became president of the United States, he invited all US Nobel Laureates for a dinner at the White House. At his welcoming remarks he commented that this was the greatest assemblage of intellect in the White House, “since Thomas Jefferson used to dine here, alone!” This magnificent hall contains now about 1,000 logicians. It is probably the greatest assemblage of intellect in Vienna since Kurt Goedel lived here. :-)

This morning Dana Scott told us about the amazing period of the Vienna Circle in the first part of the 20th Century, when Vienna, unquestionably, was the logic capital of the world. The apex of that period was in 1930-1, when Goedel published first the Completeness Theorem and then the Incompleteness Theorem. Unfortunately, that period ended rather tragically. Hans Hahn, Goedel’s PhD advisor, died rather young, at age 54, in 1934. Rudolf Carnap, concerned with the rise of Nazism, emigrated to the US in 1935. Moritz Schlick, the key organizer of the Vienna Circle, was assassinated on his way to class in 1936. In 1939, after the 1938 annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany, Goedel left Vienna and made his way to the United States via a circuitous route. So died logic in Vienna, 75 years ago.

And logic stayed dead in Vienna until the mid 1980s, about 30 years ago, when Matthias Baaz, Georg Gottlob, and Alexander Leitsch, brought it back to life. Today, logic again is flourishing in Vienna, in particular, and in Austria in general, So it is entirely appropriate that today, 75 years after logic died in Austria, we celebrate its revival in the 2014 Vienna Summer of Logic.

© VSL 2014 / Photography: Nadja Meister