The hidden heritage of modern logic

The project's aims are the transcription from shorthand and study of the writings of Kurt Gödel, Gerhard Gentzen, and Paul Bernays on the main problem of the foundations of mathematics, namely the consistency of analysis. These rich sources have remained inaccessible because of their archaic shorthand. Previous work by the PI on Gödel's and Gentzen's shorthand notes has led to stunning discoveries published in many articles and eight books, but it has left the said main problem untouched. The most important uncharted source in Gödel are his 16 ""Arbeitshefte,"" each running up to a hundred pages, and developing topics such as intuitionistic analysis and computable functionals. With Gentzen, the main sources, in another shorthand, are his two long series of notes, the ""WA"" (Consistency of analysis) and the ""BTIZ"" (Proof theory of intuitionistic arithmetic). With Bernays, the main sources are his detailed notes for two lecture courses on logic in Göttingen, in 1927 and 1929-30 that surpass by a wide margin anything known before about the birth of today's logic. The first phase of transcription and translation into English of the project aims at finishing volumes that contain all these source materials. After the first phase, a second, interpretive phase of study will be carried through. This is done in collaboration with six leading experts, chosen from different domains so that their expertise as a whole encompasses the topics and results uncovered by the first phase of the project. The project as a whole points at a new approach to the historical study of the development of science and philosophy: It is estimated that there exist thousands of exact recordings of lecture courses in shorthand by students, what are called ""Mitschriften."" The study of these vast sources will open up a new, third type of sources in the history of science, next to (a) publications and author manuscripts and (b) correspondence: How were the new theories presented to students?""