Þorsteinn Gylfason

Þorsteinn Gylfason (12 August 1942 – 16 August 2005) was an Icelandic philosopher, translator, musician and poet. Þorsteinn distinguished himself in Icelandic public life with his writings in newspapers, journals and publications.

Þorsteinn was born and raised in Reykjavík, the capital of Iceland. His parents were Guðrún Vilmundardóttir and Gylfi Þorsteinsson Gíslason, a university professor and government minister. He was the brother of Vilmundur Gylfason, a politician, and Þorvaldur Gylfason, an economist.

Þorsteinn graduated from the Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík gymnasium in 1961 and subsequently received a grant to study at Harvard University. He left Harvard with a B.A. degree in philosophy, having studied under the tutelage of Willard Van Orman Quine. He returned home for graduate studies in Icelandic, and later attended the University of Munich and Magdalen College, Oxford from 1965 to 1971. At Oxford, he studied under Gilbert Ryle and befriended well-known characters from philosophical circles, such as Alfred Jules Ayer. This influence affected his work in philosophy to a considerable extent.

Þorsteinn worked as an assistant professor at the University of Iceland from 1971, and was made full professor in 1989. He was visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the London School of Economics.

Þorsteinn received a number of awards and acknowledgements for his works, amongst them the Þórbergur Þórðarson and National Icelandic Literature Prizes in 1997. In 1994, he was awarded the Knights Cross of the Icelandic Falcon by Icelandic president Vigdís Finnbogadóttir for his contributions to Icelandic culture and academia.

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