Bolzano, Bernhard

Bernhard Bolzano, (born Oct. 5, 1781, Prague, Bohemia, Austrian Habsburg domain [now in Czech Republic]—died Dec. 18, 1848, Prague), Bohemian mathematician and theologian who provided a more detailed proof for the binomial theorem in 1816 and suggested the means of distinguishing between finite and infinite classes.

Bolzano graduated from the University of Prague as an ordained priest in 1805 and was immediately appointed professor of philosophy and religion at the university. Within a matter of years, however, Bolzano alienated many faculty and church leaders with his teachings of the social waste of militarism and the needlessness of war. He urged a total reform of the educational, social, and economic systems that would direct the nation’s interests toward peace rather than toward armed conflict between nations. Upon his refusal to recant his beliefs, Bolzano was dismissed from the university in 1819 and at that point devoted his energies to his writings on social, religious, philosophical, and mathematical matters.

Bolzano held advanced views on logic, mathematical variables, limits, and continuity. In his studies of the physical aspects of force, space, and time he proposed theories counter to those suggested by the German philosopher Immanuel Kant. Much of his work remained unpublished during his lifetime and did not have wide impact until the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when a number of his conclusions were arrived at independently.

Bolzano’s published works include Der binomische Lehrsatz (1816; “The Binomial Theorem”), Rein analytischer Beweis (1817; “Pure Analytic Proof”), Functionenlehre (1834; “Functions Model”), Wissenschaftslehre, 4 vol. (1834; “Scientific Model”), Versuch einer neuen Darstellung der Logik, 4 vol. (1837; “An Attempt at a New Presentation of Logic”), and Paradoxien des Unendlichen (1851; “Paradoxes of Infinity”).