Leśniewski, Stanisław (1886–1939) was one of the founders of the Warsaw School of logic, which flourished from 1919 to 1939. He was the author of a highly original system for the foundations of mathematics, and one of the most innovative and unorthodox logicians of the twentieth century.

Life and Influence

Leśniewski was born in Serpukhov, Russia, and received his schooling in Irkutsk. After studying at German universities, including Leipzig and Munich, he moved in 1910 to Lwów where he studied philosophy with Kazimierz Twardowski and obtained his doctorate in 1912. Leśniewski published several papers before the First World War, which he spent in Moscow. His preoccupation with the logical antinomies, which began in 1911 when he read Jan Łukasiewicz's book On the Principle of Contradiction in Aristotle, shifted his interests permanently from philosophy of language...