Begriffsschrift

Begriffsschrift is the title of a book on logic by Gottlob Frege, published in 1879, and is also the name of the formal system set out in that book. 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." The Begriffsschrift was arguably the most important publication in logic since Aristotle founded the subject... more

Begriffsschrift is the title of a book on logic by Gottlob Frege, published in 1879, and is also the name of the formal system set out in that book. 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." The Begriffsschrift was arguably the most important publication in logic since Aristotle founded the subject. Frege's motivation for developing his formal approach to logic resembled Leibniz's motivation for his calculus ratiocinator. Frege went on to employ his logical calculus in his research on the foundations of mathematics, carried out over the next quarter century. The calculus contains the first appearance of quantified variables, and is essentially classical bivalent second-order logic with identity, albeit presented using a highly idiosyncratic two-dimensional notation: connectives and quantifiers are written using lines connecting formulas... less