Karl Menger, one of the founders of dimension theory, belongs to the most original mathematicians and thinkers of the twentieth century. He was a member of the Vienna Circle and the founder of its mathematical equivalent, the Viennese Mathematical Colloquium. Both during his early years in Vienna, and after his emigration to the United States, Karl Menger made significant contributions to a wide variety of mathematical fields, and greatly influenced some of his colleagues. The Selecta Mathematica contain Menger's major mathematical papers, based on his own selection of his extensive writings. They deal with topics as diverse as topology, geometry, analysis and algebra, as well as writings on economics, sociology, logic, philosophy and mathematical results. The two volumes are a monument to the diversity and originality of Menger's ideas.

Karl Menger (1902--1985), a pure mathematician of distinction, also took an active interest in both philosophy and economics. In this memoir, which he was composing at the time of his death, he relates how all these subjects developed and flourished against the Viennese background (itself described in depth and with affection), and did so despite the political developments of the '20s and '30s, which depressed but did not silence him. He continued his work in the United States. The memoir describes his membership of the Vienna Circle (the scientifically minded philosophers that gathered around Moritz Schlick) for whom he was an invaluable intermediary, bringing them into contact with Brouwer's intuitionism, with the work of the Polish logicians, especially that of Tarski, but more generally with rigorous mathematical thinking. Indeed, the other Viennese group described here is the Mathematical Colloquium, which he founded, whose Proceedings (still read) show it to have been a powerhouse of ideas. There are also valuable chapters on philosophy and mathematics in the Poland of the '20s and '30s and the U.S. of the '30s and '40s. The memoir devotes particular attention to Wittgenstein (with whose family Menger was acquainted) and to GAdel, whom he was instrumental in bringing to America. The genesis of Menger's own writings on philosophy is also described and the work abounds in mathematical examples lucidly applied to that subject. This volume (which can now be placed beside the two by Menger already published in the Vienna Circle Collection) gives an unequalled impression of the fruitful interdisciplinarity of the tradition to which he partly belonged and partly created. It testifiesboth to Menger's power to inspire and to the critical eye he always turned on even the philosophers he most approved of. A brief account of his life is given in an Introduction by the Editors (all of whom knew him personally), and his important contribution to the social sciences -- only touched on in the text -- is elucidated by Professor Lionello Punzo.

Karl Menger, one of the founders of dimension theory, is among the most original mathematicians and thinkers of the twentieth century. He was a member of the Vienna Circle and the founder of its mathematical equivalent, the Viennese Mathematical Colloquium. Both during his early years in Vienna and, after his emigration, in the United States, Karl Menger made significant contributions to a wide variety of mathematical fields, and greatly influenced many of his colleagues. These two volumes contain Menger's major mathematical papers, based on his own selection from his extensive writings. They deal with topics as diverse as topology, geometry, analysis and algebra, and also include material on economics, sociology, logic and philosophy. The Selecta Mathematica is a monument to the diversity and originality of Menger's ideas.

Karl Menger was born in Vienna on January 13, 1902, the only child of two gifted parents. His mother Hermione, nee Andermann (1870-1922), in addition to her musical abilities, wrote and published short stories and novelettes, while his father Carl (1840-1921) was the noted Austrian economist, one of the founders of marginal utility theory. A highly cultured man, and a liberal rationalist in the nine teenth century sense, the elder Menger had witnessed the defeat and humiliation of the old Austrian empire by Bismarck's Prussia, and the subsequent establishment under Prussian leadership of a militaristic, mystically nationalistic, state-capitalist German empire - in effect, the first modern "military-industrial complex. " These events helped frame in him a set of attitudes that he later transmitted to his son, and which included an appreciation of cultural attainments and tolerance and respect for cultural differences, com bined with a deep suspicion of rabid nationalism, particularly the German variety. Also a fascination with structure, whether artistic, scientific, philosophical, or theological, but a rejection of any aura of mysticism or mumbo-jumbo accompanying such structure. Thus the son remarked at least once that the archangels' chant that begins the Prolog im Himmel in Goethe's Faust was perhaps the most viii INTRODUCTION beautiful thing in the German language "but of course it doesn't mean anything."

Karl Menger, one of the founders of dimension theory, is among the most original mathematicians and thinkers of the twentieth century. He was a member of the Vienna Circle and the founder of its mathematical equivalent, the Viennese Mathematical Colloquium. Both during his early years in Vienna and, after his emigration, in the United States, Karl Menger made significant contributions to a wide variety of mathematical fields, and greatly influenced many of his colleagues. These two volumes contain Menger's major mathematical papers, based on his own selection from his extensive writings. They deal with topics as diverse as topology, geometry, analysis and algebra, and also include material on economics, sociology, logic and philosophy. The Selecta Mathematica is a monument to the diversity and originality of Menger's ideas.