MATHEMATICIAN

Kurt Gödel

1906 - 1978

Photo of Kurt Gödel

Icon of person Kurt Gödel

Kurt Friedrich Gödel ( GUR-dəl; German: [kʊʁt ˈɡøːdl̩] ; April 28, 1906 – January 14, 1978) was a logician, mathematician, and philosopher. Considered along with Aristotle and Gottlob Frege to be one of the most significant logicians in history, Gödel profoundly influenced scientific and philosophical thinking in the 20th century (at a time when Bertrand Russell, Alfred North Whitehead, and David Hilbert were using logic and set theory to investigate the foundations of mathematics), building on earlier work by Frege, Richard Dedekind, and Georg Cantor. Gödel's discoveries in the foundations of mathematics led to the proof of his completeness theorem in 1929 as part of his dissertation to earn a doctorate at the University of Vienna, and the publication of Gödel's incompleteness theorems two years later, in 1931. The incompleteness theorems address limitations of formal axiomatic systems. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Kurt Gödel is the 32nd most popular mathematician (up from 37th in 2019), the 19th most popular biography from Czechia (up from 22nd in 2019) and the most popular Czech Mathematician.

Kurt Gödel is most famous for his incompleteness theorems, which state that any logical system that is powerful enough to describe arithmetic will contain statements that are true but cannot be proven.

Memorability Metrics

Loading...

Page views of Kurt Gödel by language

Loading...

Among MATHEMATICIANS

Among mathematicians, Kurt Gödel ranks 32 out of 1,004. Before him are Hero of Alexandria, John von Neumann, Srinivasa Ramanujan, Diophantus, Gerolamo Cardano, and François Viète. After him are Luca Pacioli, Niels Henrik Abel, Brahmagupta, Pope Sylvester II, Georg Cantor, and Apollonius of Perga.

Most Popular Mathematicians in Wikipedia

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Contemporaries

Among people born in 1906, Kurt Gödel ranks 8. Before him are Puyi, Adolf Eichmann, Maria Goeppert Mayer, Hannah Arendt, Dmitri Shostakovich, and Grace Hopper. After him are Samuel Beckett, Aristotle Onassis, Ernst Chain, Faisal of Saudi Arabia, Luchino Visconti, and Emmanuel Levinas. Among people deceased in 1978, Kurt Gödel ranks 4. Before him are Pope John Paul I, Pope Paul VI, and Golda Meir. After him are Aram Khachaturian, Santiago Bernabéu Yeste, Manne Siegbahn, Aldo Moro, Jacques Brel, Mohammed Daoud Khan, Giorgio de Chirico, and Robert Shaw.

Others Born in 1906

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Others Deceased in 1978

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

In Czechia

Among people born in Czechia, Kurt Gödel ranks 19 out of 1,200. Before him are Alphonse Mucha (1860), Václav Havel (1936), Rainer Maria Rilke (1875), Edmund Husserl (1859), Jan Žižka (1360), and Bertha von Suttner (1843). After him are Wilhelm Steinitz (1836), John of Nepomuk (1350), Ferdinand Porsche (1875), Karel Čapek (1890), Joseph Radetzky von Radetz (1766), and Miloš Forman (1932).

Others born in Czechia

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Among MATHEMATICIANS In Czechia

Among mathematicians born in Czechia, Kurt Gödel ranks 1. After him are Leo Perutz (1882), Johannes Widmann (1460), Johann Radon (1887), Eduard Čech (1893), and Olga Taussky-Todd (1906).

Czech born Mathematicians

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous