George Edward Hughes

George Edward Hughes

George Edward Hughes (born June 8, 1918 in Waterford , Northern Ireland ; † March 4, 1994 in Wellington , New Zealand ) was a British philosopher and logician with a focus on modal logic and philosophy of the Middle Ages . He was married to the historian Beryl Hughes (* 1920) who, like him, was for many years a lecturer at the Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand and co-founded women's studies there . The two have five children.

Life

Hughes was born in Waterford, Ireland in 1918. However, as a result of the Northern Ireland conflict , the English Hughes family moved to Scotland in the early 20s of the 20th century. Hughes graduated from the University of Glasgow with a degree in Philosophy and English Literature with top marks. After a year as a postgraduate at the University of Cambridge , he received an assistant teaching position in Glasgow, which was followed by positions as a lecturer at the University College of South Wales in Cardiff and at the University College of North Wales in Bangor. Hughes was ordained a priest of the Anglican Scottish Episcopal Church in Bangor in 1950 , but without having completed any theological training, as there was a need for people who could hold services in both English and Welsh. However, Hughes is said to have learned the Welsh liturgy by heart without being able to understand the language. In 1951 he was offered the chair of philosophy at Victoria University of Wellington, which he held until his retirement in 1984. He died in Wellington on March 4, 1994.

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In Hughes' work there are clear influences from John Wisdom and Ludwig Wittgenstein , both of whom he had heard in Cambridge; also by John Langshaw Austin , the leading exponent of natural language philosophy, and Arthur Norman Prior , whom he met in New Zealand.

Hughes' early works deal with ethics and the philosophy of religion , but are best known for his work on modal logic, which he wrote together with his former student and later colleague Max Cresswell . An Introduction to Modal Logic , published by the two in 1968, was the first modern textbook in the field and has been translated into numerous languages. This work is of particular importance because it brought generations of researchers and students closer to the model theoretical semantics of Saul Kripke , which was to become the standard theory for the formal semantics of both natural and formal languages.

Hughes' second focus was the logic of the Middle Ages, especially the provision of commentaries and English translations of the Latin works of Jean Buridan and Paulus Venetus .

Publications (selection)

Monographs

• The Elements of Formal Logic , with DG Londey, Methuen 1965.
• An Introduction to Modal Logic dt, with MJ Cresswell, Methuen 1968.. Introduction to modal logic , Berlin, New York: de Gruyter 1978, ISBN 3-11-004609-1
• John Buridan on Self-Reference: Chapter Eight of Buridan's 'Sophismata', with a Translation, an Introduction, and a Philosophical Commentary , Cambridge University Press, 1982.
• A Companion to Modal Logic , with MJ Cresswell, Methuen 1984.
• Paul of Venice. Logica magna, Part II, Fascicule 4, Capitula De Conditionali et De Rationali . Edited and translated by Hughes in the series The British Academy Classical and Medieval Logic Texts, VI . Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1990.
• A New Introduction to Modal Logic , with MJ Cresswell, Routledge, 1996.

Essays

• Motive and Duty, by George E. Hughes. Mind , New Series, Vol. 53, No. 212, (Oct., 1944), pp. 314-331.
• An Examination of the Argument from Theology to Ethics, by George E. Hughes. Philosophy , Vol. 22, No. 81, (Apr., 1947), pp. 3-24.
• The Ethical Relevance of Consequences, by George E. Hughes. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society , New Series, Vol. 48, (1947-1948), pp. 59-74.
• Has God's Existence Been Disproved ?: A Reply to Professor JN Findlay , by George E. Hughes. Mind , New Series, Vol. 58, No. 229, (Jan., 1949), pp. 67-74.
• Symposium: Is There Knowledge by Acquaintance ?, by HLA Hart , GE Hughes, and JN Findlay. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society , Supplementary Volumes, Vol. 23, Politics, Psychology and Art, (1949), pp. 69-128.
• Moral Condemnation, by GE Hughes. In Essays in Moral Philosophy , edited by AI Report, University of Washington Press, 1958, pp. 108-134.
• Plantinga on the Rationality of God's Existence, by GE Hughes. The Philosophical Review , Vol. 79, No. 2, (Apr., 1970), pp. 246-252.
• Omnitemporal Logic and Converging Time, by GE Hughes and MJ Cresswell. Theoria , 41 (1975), no. 1, 11-34.
• Modal Systems With No Minimal Proper Extensions, by GE Hughes. Reports on Mathematical Logic , No. 6 (1976), pp. 93-98.
• Omnitemporal Logic and Nodal Time, by George E. Hughes. Reports on Mathematical Logic , No. 8 (1977), pp. 41-61.
• Equivalence Relations and S5, by GE Hughes. Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic , 21 (1980), no. 3, pp. 577-584.
• Some Strong Omnitemporal Logics, by GE Hughes. Synthesis , 53 (1982), no. 1, pp. 19-42.
• The Modal Logic of John Buridan, by GE Hughes. In Atti del Convegno internazionale di storia della logica: la teoria delle modalità , ed. G. Corsi, C. Mangione, and M. Mugnani, CLUEB, Bologna, 1989, pp. 93-111.
• Every World Can See a Reflexive World, by GE Hughes. Studia Logica , 49 (1990) no. 2, 175-181.

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• Obituary: George Hughes. Australasian Journal of Philosophy , Vol. 72, No. 4; December 1994, page 548.
• Vaughan R. Pratt (1980). Application of modal logic to programming. Studia Logica , Vol. 39, pages 257-274.
• George Edward Hughes at the NZ Electronic Text Center