The contribution of Polish logicians to recursion theory

Roman Murawski

pp. 265-282

in: Katarzyna Kijania-Placek, Jan Woleński (eds), The Lvov-Warsaw school and contemporary philosophy, Berlin, Springer, 1998

Abstract

The first need for a systematic study of functions whose values can be calculated by a finite process (usually called computable) can be found in the Hilbert school. It was connected with the decision problem for first-order logic (and in general, for first-order theories) considered by Hilbert and his students in connection with the Hilbert program. The aim of this program was to justify classical mathematics by finitistic means.