Kurt Friedrich Godel (UK: , US: ; German: ['kUat 'go:dl] ( listen); April 28, 1906 - January 14, 1978) was an Austrian, and later American, logician, mathematician, and philosopher.
At the age of 18, Godel joined his brother in Vienna and entered the University of Vienna. By that time, he had already mastered university-level mathematics. Although initially intending to study theoretical physics, he also attended courses on mathematics and philosophy. During this time, he adopted ideas of mathematical realism. He read Kant's Metaphysische Anfangsgrunde der Naturwissenschaft, and participated in the Vienna Circle with Moritz Schlick, Hans Hahn, and Rudolf Carnap. Godel then studied number theory, but when he took part in a seminar run by Moritz Schlick which studied Bertrand Russell's book Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy, he became interested in mathematical logic. According to Godel, mathematical logic was "a science prior to all others, which contains the ideas and principles underlying all sciences."  Attending a lecture by David Hilbert in Bologna on completeness and consistency of mathematical systems may have set Godel's life course. In 1928, Hilbert and Wilhelm Ackermann published Grundzuge der theoretischen Logik (Principles of Mathematical Logic), an introduction to first-order logic in which the problem of completeness was posed: Are the axioms of a formal system sufficient to derive every statement that is true in all models of the system?  This became the topic that Godel chose for his doctoral work. In 1929, at the age of 23, he completed his doctoral dissertation under Hans Hahn's supervision. In it, he established the completeness of the first-order predicate calculus (Godel's completeness theorem). He was awarded his doctorate in 1930. His thesis, along with some additional work, was published by the Vienna Academy of Science. CANNOTANSWER
Studying in Vienna
Godel was born April 28, 1906, in Brunn, Austria-Hungary (now Brno, Czech Republic) into the ethnic German family of Rudolf Godel (1874-1929), the manager of a textile factory, and Marianne Godel (nee Handschuh, 1879-1966). Throughout his life, Godel would remain close to his mother; their correspondence was frequent and wide-ranging. At the time of his birth the city had a German-speaking majority which included his parents. His father was Catholic and his mother was Protestant and the children were raised Protestant. The ancestors of Kurt Godel were often active in Brunn's cultural life. For example, his grandfather Joseph Godel was a famous singer of that time and for some years a member of the "Brunner Mannergesangverein".  Godel automatically became a Czechoslovak citizen at age 12 when the Austro-Hungarian Empire broke up at the end of World War I. According to his classmate Klepetar, like many residents of the predominantly German Sudetenlander, "Godel considered himself always Austrian and an exile in Czechoslovakia". He chose to become an Austrian citizen at age 23. When Germany annexed Austria in 1938, Godel automatically became a German citizen at age 32. After World War II, at the age of 42, he became an American citizen.  In his family, young Kurt was known as Herr Warum ("Mr. Why") because of his insatiable curiosity. According to his brother Rudolf, at the age of six or seven Kurt suffered from rheumatic fever; he completely recovered, but for the rest of his life he remained convinced that his heart had suffered permanent damage. Beginning at age four, Godel suffered from "frequent episodes of poor health," which would continue for his entire life.  Godel attended the Evangelische Volksschule, a Lutheran school in Brunn from 1912 to 1916, and was enrolled in the Deutsches Staats-Realgymnasium from 1916 to 1924, excelling with honors in all his subjects, particularly in mathematics, languages and religion. Although Kurt had first excelled in languages, he later became more interested in history and mathematics. His interest in mathematics increased when in 1920 his older brother Rudolf (born 1902) left for Vienna to go to medical school at the University of Vienna. During his teens, Kurt studied Gabelsberger shorthand, Goethe's Theory of Colours and criticisms of Isaac Newton, and the writings of Immanuel Kant. CANNOTANSWER
Childhood