Raymond smullyan

Raymond M. Smullyan (Far Rockaway, Queens, May 25, 1919 – February 6, 2017) was an American mathematician, logician, philosopher, magician, pianist, and humorist.

Biography

From an early age he was fascinated by recreational mathematics, especially logic.

At the age of thirteen, he moved with his family to Manhattan, where he attended Theodore Roosevelt High School in the Bronx for special music courses, another of Ray's areas of interest. However, despite his excellent musical training, the Theodore Roosevelt Institute did not offer him enough in another subject that he was passionate about: mathematics. That was how he decided to drop out of school and become self-taught.

Some years later Smullyan took the college entrance exams, earning his way into Pacific College of Oregon. It wasn't long before she transferred to Reed College, and later to San Francisco, where she resumed her piano studies. It is not a secret that this stage of his life was full of confusion, not knowing whether to direct his career towards music or mathematics.

After a while he returned to New York, where he again resumed his self-taught studies of mathematics and logic, serving as the inspiration for what would become his first puzzles on chess. With no clear prospect on his horizon, he made his living as a magician, performing some traditional card tricks, and others of his own invention, mixed with mathematical logic, which gave him a certain renown.

In 1943 he decided to resume formal education, entering the University of Wisconsin. A year later he went to Chicago, where he enrolled in a few courses, dropping out after the first semester. He decided to follow his self-taught path, earning a living as a music professor at Roosevelt College in Chicago.

Without a fixed direction in his life, he would soon return to New York, staying there for two years, and working again as a magician in the Greenwich Village venues.

Once again, in 1949, he returned to Chicago to take some courses at the university, while continuing his career as a magician.

In 1954 he was still studying at the university, doing some research on his own, although he did not have enough credits to earn a graduate degree. One of his professors, Rudolf Carnap, recommended him for the teaching position at Dartmouth College, despite not having a university degree. He practiced as such from 1954 to 1956, obtaining his degree in 1955. The University of Chicago decided to grant him the corresponding credits for a calculus course, which although he had never taken it as a student, he was teaching it as a professor.

In 1957 he entered Princeton University, working on his doctorate under Alonzo Church. He achieved his doctorate in 1959, and worked at Princeton until 1961.

Since 1982 he held the position of Professor Emeritus at New York University. The same year he was awarded the Oscar Erwing Chair as professor of philosophy at Indiana University.

Books

Logic Riddles

• (1978) What's this book called? (1989) Editions Chair, S.A.
• (1982) The lady or the tiger? (1989) Editions Chair, S.A.
• (1982) Alicia in the country of riddles (1989) Editions Chair, S.A.
• (1985) To Mock a Mockingbird
• (1987) Forever Undecided
• (1992) Satan, Cantor and infinite (1995) Editorial Gedisa, S.A.
• (1997) The Scherezade enigma (1998) Editorial Gedisa, S.A.
• (1988) forever mysterious (1988) Editorial Gedisa, S.A.
• (1989) Games to imitate an imitating bird (1989) Editorial Gedisa, S.A.
• (2002) Gentlemen, breeks and egocentric birds (2002) Editorial Gedisa, S.A.
• (2002) Curious forests and aristocratic birds (2002) Editorial Gedisa, S.A.
• (2009) Logical Labyrinths
• (2010) King Arthur in Search of his Dog
• (2013) The Godelian Puzzle Book: Puzzles, Paradoxes and Proofs
• (2015) The Magic Garden of George B and Other Logic Puzzles] ISBN 978-981-4675-05-5

Chess

• (1979) Chess games and problems for Sherlock Holmes (1987) Editorial Gedisa, S.A.
• (1981) Chess games and the mysterious horses of Arabia (1986) Editorial Gedisa, S.A.

Philosophy

• (1977) Quiet Tao (1994) The Hare of March
• (1980) This Book Needs No Title
• (1983) Five thousand years a. of C. and other philosophical fantasies (1989) Editions Chair, S.A.
• (2002) Some Interesting Memories: A Paradoxical Life
• (2003) Who Knows?: A Study of Religious Consciousness
• (2009) Rambles Through My Library
• (2015) Reflections: The Magic, Music and Mathematics of Raymond Smullyan

Academics

• (1961) Theory of Formal Systems
• (1968) First-Order Logic
• (1992) Gödel's Incompleteness Theorems
• (1993) Recursion Theory for Metamathematics
• (1994) Diagonalization and Self-Reference
• (1996) Set Theory and the Continuum Problem
• (2014) A Beginner's Guide to Mathematical Logic