Raymond Smullyan
Raymond Merrill Smullyan (born May 25, 1919 in Far Rockaway , Queens , New York City , † February 6, 2017 in New York City) was an American mathematician and logician who was mainly known for his popular science books with logical riddles and philosophical Stories became known.
Life
Smullyan was born in Far Rockaway, on the Rockaway Peninsula of Queens . In his youth he was equally interested in music and math, but he dropped out of high school with no graduation. After training as a pianist a. a. with Gunnar Johansen at the University of Wisconsin – Madison , he initially worked as a piano teacher at Roosevelt College in Chicago . When a tendinitis disease in his right arm forced him to give up this job, he turned to mathematics. He changed universities several times, a. a. he studied with Rudolf Carnap at the University of Chicago , and earned his living as a magician in night clubs. Finally, he closed the study of mathematics still in 1959 at the Princeton University with a doctoral title ( Ph.D. ) in Alonzo Church from (Theory of formal systems). Since 1961 Smullyan was Professor of Mathematics a. a. at Yeshiva University , Lehman College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York . After his retirement there in 1982, he was appointed professor of philosophy at Indiana University .
In 1962 he gave a lecture at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Stockholm (Analytic natural deduction).
Melvin Fitting is one of his PhD students .
logic
Smullyan dealt with logical riddles ; paradoxes often arise . The puzzles are set in the environment of knights and villains, day and followers and other abstract societies. Among other things, Smullyan is the author of the " Most Difficult Riddle in the World ".
Chess composition
The retro-analytical solution to his chess task, in which a double chess occurs without one of the two chess pieces having moved last, is only apparently paradoxical .
Works
- Puzzle books:
- What is the name of this book? ISBN 3-528-08436-7 (What is the Name of this Book?), 1981
- Alice in Rätselland, ISBN 3-8105-1808-5 (Alice in Puzzle Land), 1982
- Lady or tiger? ISBN 3-8105-1806-9 (The Lady or the Tiger?), 1982
- Mockingbirds and other meta-birds , ISBN 3-8105-1831-X (To Mock a Mockingbird), 1985
- Logic Knights and Other Villains , ISBN 3-8105-1853-0 (Forever Undecided. A Puzzle Guide to Gödel ), 1987
- Satan, Cantor and Infinity , ISBN 3-7643-2886-X , 1992
- Philosophical books
- The Tao is Silent , ISBN 3-5961-3588-5 (The Tao is Silent), 1977
- Untitled book , ISBN 3-528-08485-5 (This Book Needs No Title), 1984
- Simplicius and the Tree , ISBN 3-810-51809-3 , 1985
- Who Knows? A Study of Religious Consciousness , ISBN 0-2532-1574-9 , 2003
- Academic books
- First-order Logic , ISBN 0-4866-8370-2 , 1995
- Theory of Formal Systems
- Gödel's Incompleteness Theorems , ISBN 0-1950-4672-2 , 1992
- Books with (retro) chess problems
- Chess with Sherlock Holmes. 50 exciting problems , Ravensburg 1982, ISBN 3-473-43117-6 (The chess mysteries of Sherlock Holmes, 1979)
- The chess secrets of the caliph. New problems of retro analysis , Ravensburg 1984, ISBN 3-473-43189-3 (The chess mysteries of the Arabian Knights, 1981)
literature
- Donald J. Albers, GL Alexanderson Mathematical People. Profiles and interviews. Birkhäuser, 1985.
Web links
- Literature by and about Raymond Smullyan in the catalog of the German National Library
- Compositions by Raymond Smullyan on the Schwalbe's PDB server
- John J. O'Connor, Edmund F. Robertson : Raymond Smullyan. In: MacTutor History of Mathematics archive .
- Raymond Smullyan: Chess with Sherlock Holmes. Archived from the original on May 20, 2008 ; accessed on February 12, 2017 (excerpts).
- Raymond Smullyan: Is God a Taoist? Massachusetts Institute of Technology , 1977.
- Raymond Smullyan: Planet Without Laughter. Excerpt from Raymund Smullyan's work: This Book Needs No Title: A Budget of Living Paradoxes. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs (New Jersey), 1980 (English).
- Raymond Smullyan: An Epistemological Nightmare. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1982.
- Raymond Smullyan. Piano Society (English).
Individual evidence
- ^ Hannah Osborne: Mathematician and puzzle-maker Raymond Smullyan dead at 97. In: International Business Times . February 10, 2017, accessed February 12, 2017.
- ↑ Raymond Smullyan in the Mathematics Genealogy Project (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Smullyan, Raymond |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Smullyan, Raymond Merrill (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American mathematician, logician, and author |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 25, 1919 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Far Rockaway, Long Island , Queens borough , New York City |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 6, 2017 |
| Place of death | New York City |