Petr Vopěnka

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Petr Vopěnka (2009)

Petr Vopěnka (born May 16, 1935 in Prague ; † March 20, 2015 ) was a Czech mathematician who studied set theory , mathematical logic , philosophy of mathematics and the history of mathematics .

Life

Vopěnka grew up in Dolní Kralovice and went to high school in Ledeč nad Sázavou . From 1953 to 1958 he studied mathematics and physics at the Charles University in Prague , where he then taught. In 1962 he received his doctorate there under Eduard Čech (with whom he began his dissertation - but Cech died in 1960) and Ladislav Rieger (candidate title) and habilitated in 1967 (doctorate according to the Russian system). From 1964 he was a lecturer and in 1968 he became a professor at Charles University (appointed by the University's Academic Council), but was not able to take up his professorship until 1990 for political reasons after the crackdown on the Prague Spring . In 1967 he became head of the then newly founded department for mathematical logic at the university, which was dissolved again in 1970, and from 1966 to 1969 he was vice dean of the mathematical-physical faculty. Politically, he had fallen out of favor by the 1970s and 1980s. Although he was able to stay at Charles University (thanks in part to the intervention of the Russian mathematician Pawel Sergejewitsch Alexandrov ), where he was head of a school of mathematical logicians, he was unable to attend congresses abroad (even in Poland) and was in contact with restricted to foreign mathematicians. After the fall of the Wall in 1990, he became the deputy rector of Charles University and from 1990 to 1992 he was Minister of Education of the Czechoslovak Republic. From 1992 he was head of the newly established department for mathematical logic at Charles University, which existed until 2000, when Vopěnka retired and became professor emeritus at Charles University. Until 2009 he taught at the Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem and then in the Department of Interdisciplinary Research at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen .

In 1998 he received the Medal of Merit from President Václav Havel . In 1970 he was invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Nice ( The theory of semisets ).

In the mid-1960s, he introduced Boolean models of set theory independently of Dana Scott and Robert Solovay .

At the beginning of the 1970s he was the founder of an alternative set theory , alternatively referring to the classical Cantor set theory. He also dealt increasingly with philosophy of mathematics from the 1970s and 1980s, being influenced by Edmund Husserl . In the 1980s he organized a philosophical seminar at Charles University, where he also gave access to officially exiled philosophers. He later turned to the history of mathematics. He translated classical mathematical works, for example from al-Chwarizmi and Euclid, into Czech.

His PhD students include Thomas Jech , Karel Hrbacek and Petr Hájek .

Fonts (selection)

  • Mathematics in the alternative set theory. Teubner, Leipzig 1979, DNB 801040825 .
  • Introduction to mathematics in the alternative set theory. Bratislava 1989.
  • With Petr Hájek: The theory of Semisets. North Holland 1972.
  • Podivuhodný květ českého baroka. (The remarkable flowering of the Czech Baroque), 1998.
  • Meditace o základech vědy. (Meditations on the Basics of Science), 2001.
  • Úhelný kámen evropské vzdělanosti a moci. (Cornerstone of European learning and power), 2000.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Zemřel polistopadový ministr školství, významný matematik Vopěnka. At: ceskenoviny.cz. March 20, 2015, accessed March 25, 2015.
  2. ↑ Petr Vopěnka in the Mathematics Genealogy Project (English)Template: MathGenealogyProject / Maintenance / name used
  3. ^ Petr Vopěnka: Alternative Set Theory. In: Encyclopedia of Mathematics.
personal data
SURNAME Vopěnka, Petr
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Czech mathematician and politician
DATE OF BIRTH May 16, 1935
PLACE OF BIRTH Prague
DATE OF DEATH March 20, 2015