Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-c47g7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T00:43:45.689Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Opening speech of Petr Vopěnka

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 March 2017

Samuel R. Buss
Affiliation:
University of California, San Diego
Petr Hájek
Affiliation:
Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague
Pavel Pudlák
Affiliation:
Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague
Get access

Summary

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am very happy to be able to welcome you to Prague. French historian Ernest Denis once wrote that in Prague every stone tells a story. As you walk across the Charles Bridge, pause to remember Tycho de Brahe and Johannes Kepler who used to stroll there over 400 years ago as well as Bernard Bolzano two centuries later. I am sure that you too will fall in love with this old, inspiring, majestic, but also tragic city.

These were the words with which I had planned to welcome participants of Logic Colloquium '80 which was cancelled by the communist government. The totalitarian regime was afraid that the participating mathematicians would call for the release of their colleague, mathematician Vaclav Benda, who was serving a 5 year prison term. He was imprisoned for publicity drawing attention to politically motivated prosecution of those opposing the regime. For us, Czech mathematicians, the cancellation meant even deeper isolation from our colleagues abroad. But we never doubted that even though mathematics is very beautiful, freedom is even more so.

Logic Colloquium '98 will now commence.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×