George Boolos
| George Boolos | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
September 4, 1940 New York, New York, U.S. |
| Died | May 27, 1996 (aged 55) Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Alma mater |
Princeton University Oxford University MIT |
| Era | 20th-century philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | Analytic philosophy |
|
Main interests
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Philosophy of mathematics, mathematical logic |
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Notable ideas
|
Hume's principle |
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Influences
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George Stephen Boolos (September 4, 1940 – May 27, 1996) was an American philosopher and a mathematical logician who taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Boolos graduated from Princeton University in 1961 with an A.B. in mathematics. Oxford University awarded him the B.Phil. in 1963. In 1966, he obtained the first Ph.D. in philosophy ever awarded by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, under the direction of Hilary Putnam. After teaching three years at Columbia University, he returned to MIT in 1969, where he spent the rest of his career until his death from cancer.
A charismatic speaker well known for his clarity and wit, he once delivered a lecture (1994b) giving an account of Gödel's second incompleteness theorem, employing only words of one syllable. At the end of his viva, Hilary Putnam asked him, "And tell us, Mr. Boolos, what does the analytical hierarchy have to do with the real world?" Without hesitating Boolos replied, "It's part of it".
An expert on puzzles of all kinds, in 1993 Boolos reached the London Regional Final of The Times crossword competition. His score was one of the highest ever recorded by an American. He wrote a paper on "the hardest logic puzzle ever"—one of many puzzles created by Raymond Smullyan.
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