Bernard Bolzano 1781 – 1848

Bernard Placidus Johann Nepomuk Bolzano was a Bohemian Catholic priest, mathematician, logician, and theologian, often called the great-grandfather of analytic philosophy. Trained in mathematics and theology at Prague, he held the chair of philosophy of religion at Charles University until political and ecclesiastical pressure forced his removal in 1819. His four-volume Wissenschaftslehre developed an original logic of propositions and truths in themselves, his Paradoxes of the Infinite anticipated the later set-theoretic understanding of infinity, and his work on continuous functions anticipated later rigorous analysis. His philosophical writings circulated mainly after his death, but they shaped Husserl, Frege, and the broader European logical tradition.