Ernst Zermelo - Collected Works/Gesammelte Werke

Ernst Zermelo (1871-1953) is regarded as the founder of axiomatic set theory and best-known for the first formulation of the axiom of choice. However, his papers include also pioneering work in applied mathematics and mathematical physics.

This edition of his collected papers will consist of two volumes. Besides providing a biography, the present Volume I covers set theory, the foundations of mathematics, and pure mathematics and is supplemented by selected items from his Nachlass and part of his translations of Homer's Odyssey. Volume II will contain his work in the calculus of variations, applied mathematics, and physics.

The papers are each presented in their original language together with an English translation, the versions facing each other on opposite pages. Each paper or coherent group of papers is preceded by an introductory note provided by an acknowledged expert in the field which comments on the historical background, motivations, accomplishments, and influence.

• Mengenlehre
• Zermelo
• calculus
• game theory
• history
• mathematical logic
• set history
• set theory

From the reviews:

“Volume I covers set theory, the foundations of mathematics and pure mathematics … . The papers are presented in their original language together with English translation on the opposite page, each one preceded by an introductory note commenting on the historical background, motivations, accomplishments, and influence. … All in all, the volume is remarkable and a very welcome addition to the literature of collected papers in mathematics, of great interest also to philosophers, logicians, and historians of science.” (José Ferreirós, Metascience, April, 2011)

“The book under review is the first volume of a complete edition of the published works of Ernst Zermelo. It includes also selected correspondence and unpublished manuscripts. The edition appears in two volumes. … papers have been published in languages in which they were originally written together with parallel English translations. They are proceded by introductory notes written by experts in theappropriate fields. Those notes are a crucial part of the edition. … The volume has been published in a beautiful and careful way.” (Roman Murawski, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1185, 2010)

• University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

  Heinz-Dieter Ebbinghaus

• University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

  Craig G. Fraser

• Boston University, Boston, USA

  Akihiro Kanamori

H.-D. EBBINGHAUS: has worked in mathematical logic, mainly in model theory, during the last years also in the history of set theory. Author of the biography of Zermelo, "Zermelo - An Approach to His Life And Work", http://www.springer.com/978-3-540-49551-2.

CRAIG FRASER: works on the history of analysis and mathematical mechanics, covering the period from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. A focus of his research has been the calculus of variations, Zermelo's first area of mathematical research. He is a corresponding member of the International Academy of the History of Science.

AKIHIRO KANAMORI: works in set theory, the history of set theory, and has written several papers on Zermelo and set theory.

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