Editing Alfred Tarski (section)

===Early life and education===
Alfred Tarski was born Alfred Teitelbaum ([[Polish language|Polish]] spelling: "Tajtelbaum"), to parents who were [[Polish Jews]] in comfortable circumstances. He first manifested his mathematical abilities while in secondary school, at Warsaw's ''[[Szkoła Mazowiecka]]''.<ref>[[#F-F|Feferman & Feferman]], pp.17-18</ref> Nevertheless, he entered the [[University of Warsaw]] in 1918 intending to study [[biology]].<ref name="Feferman & Feferman, p.26">[[#F-F|Feferman & Feferman]], p.26</ref>

After Poland regained independence in 1918, Warsaw University came under the leadership of [[Jan Łukasiewicz]], [[Stanisław Leśniewski]] and [[Wacław Sierpiński]] and quickly became a world-leading research institution in logic, [[foundational mathematics]], and the philosophy of mathematics. Leśniewski recognized Tarski's potential as a mathematician and encouraged him to abandon biology.<ref name="Feferman & Feferman, p.26"/>  Henceforth Tarski attended courses taught by Łukasiewicz, Sierpiński, [[Stefan Mazurkiewicz]] and [[Tadeusz Kotarbiński]], and in 1924 became the only person ever to complete a doctorate under Leśniewski's supervision. His thesis was entitled ''O wyrazie pierwotnym logistyki'' (''On the Primitive Term of Logistic''; published 1923). Tarski and Leśniewski soon grew cool to each other, mainly due to the latter's increasing anti-semitism.<ref name="FFintro" /> However, in later life, Tarski reserved his warmest praise for Kotarbiński, which was reciprocated.

In 1923, Alfred Teitelbaum and his brother Wacław changed their surname to "Tarski". The Tarski brothers also converted to [[Roman Catholicism]], Poland's dominant religion. Alfred did so even though he was an avowed [[atheism|atheist]].<ref>[[#F-F|Feferman & Feferman]], p.294</ref><ref>"Most of the Socialist Party members were also in favor of assimilation, and Tarski's political allegiance was socialist at the time. So, along with its being a practical move, becoming more Polish than Jewish was an ideological statement and was approved by many, though not all, of his colleagues. As to why Tarski, a professed atheist, converted, that just came with the territory and was part of the package: if you were going to be Polish then you had to say you were Catholic." Anita Burdman Feferman, Solomon Feferman, ''Alfred Tarski: Life and Logic'' (2004), page 39.</ref>