Jon Barwise

Jon Barwise

Kenneth Jon Barwise (June 29, 1942 - March 5, 2000) was a U.S. mathematician, philosopher and logician who proposed some fundamental revisions to the way that logic is understood and used.

Born in Independence, Missouri to Kenneth T. and Evelyn, he was a precocious child.

A pupil of Solomon Feferman at Stanford University, Barwise started his research in infinitary logic. After positions as assistant professor at the Universities of Yale and Wisconsin, during which time his interests turned to natural language, he returned to Stanford in 1983 to direct the Center for the Study of Language and Information. He began teaching at Indiana University in 1990.

Barwise contended that, by being explicit about the context in which a proposition is made, the "situation", many problems in the application of logic can be eliminated. He sought "... to understand meaning and inference within a general theory of information, one that takes us outside the realm of sentences and relations between sentences of any language, natural or formal." In particular, he claimed that such an approach resolved the liar paradox. He made use of Peter Aczel's non-well-founded set theory in understanding "vicious circles" of reasoning.

Barwise, along with his former colleague at Stanford John Etchemendy, was the author of the popular logic textbook "Language, Proof and Logic". The text is notable for including computer-aided homework problems, some of which provide visual representations of logical problems. During his time at Stanford, he was also the first Director of the Symbolic Systems Program, an interdepartmental degree program focusing on the relationships between cognition, language, logic, and computation. The K. Jon Barwise Award for Distinguished Contributions to the Symbolic Systems Program has been given periodically since 2001. [ [https://symsys.stanford.edu/ssp_static?page=Honors-Awards.html Symbolic Systems Program ] ]

He was diagnosed with colon cancer in 1999 and throughout the rest of his life made an exhaustive exploration of his condition both through conventional and alternative medicine, and by articulating his own emotional experience. The Ting-sha Institute in Inverness, California played an important part in his journey. Indiana University's School of Informatics has named a scholarship for Master's degree students in his honor.

Works

*Barwise, K. J. (1988) "The Situation in Logic" ISBN 0-937073-32-6
*Barwise, K. J. & Etchemendy, J. (1987) "The Liar: An Essay in Truth and Circularity" ISBN 0195059441
*Barwise, K. J. & Moss, L. (1996) "Vicious Circles. On the Mathematics of Non-Wellfounded Phenomena" ISBN 1-57586-008-2
*Barwise, K. J. & Perry, John (1983) "Situations and Attitudes". Cambridge: MIT Press. ISBN 1-57586-193-3
*Barwise, K, J. & Seligman, J. (1997) "Information Flow: the Logic of Distributed Systems" ISBN 0-521-58386-1
*Barwise, K. J. & Etchemendy, J. (2002) "Language, Proof and Logic" ISBN 1-57586-374-X

ee also

* IACAP See under "Barwise Prize"
* Barwise prize

References

External links

* [http://www.math.ucla.edu/~asl/bsl/0604/0604-004.ps "In Memoriam": Kenneth Jon Barwise by Solomon Feferman] "The Bulletin of Symbolic Logic" vol. 6(4) Dec. 2000, pp505-8 (PostScript)


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужен реферат?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Jon Barwise — Kenneth Jon Barwise (* 29. Juni 1942 in Independence (Missouri); † 5. März 2000 in Bloomington, Indiana) war ein US amerikanischer Mathematiker und Philosoph, der sich mit mathematischer Logik beschäftigte. Leben und Wirken Barwise studierte… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Jon Barwise — Kenneth Jon Barwise (né le 29 juin 1942 et décédé le 5 mars 2000) est un mathématicien, philosophe et logicien américain. Sommaire 1 Biographie 2 Hommage 3 Bibliographie …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Barwise prize — The Barwise prize was established in 2002 by the American Philosophical Association, in conjunction with the APA Committee on Philosophy and Computers, on the basis of a proposal from the International Association for Computing and Philosophy for …   Wikipedia

  • Barwise compactness theorem — In mathematical logic, the Barwise compactness theorem, named after Jon Barwise, is a generalization of the usual compactness theorem for first order logic to a certain class of infinitary languages. It was stated and proved by Barwise in… …   Wikipedia

  • John Perry (philosopher) — John R. Perry (born 1943) is Henry Waldgrave Stuart Professor of Philosophy at Stanford University. He has made significant contributions to areas of philosophy, including logic, philosophy of language, metaphysics, and philosophy of mind. He is… …   Wikipedia

  • First-order logic — is a formal logical system used in mathematics, philosophy, linguistics, and computer science. It goes by many names, including: first order predicate calculus, the lower predicate calculus, quantification theory, and predicate logic (a less… …   Wikipedia

  • Interpretative Semantik — Die Interpretative Semantik ist Kern der semantischen Theorie, die 1963 von dem Linguisten Jerrold Katz und dem Kognitionswissenschaftler Jerry Fodor publiziert wurde, um zu erklären, mit welchem Regelapparat ein Sprecher korrekte Sätze bildet… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Liar paradox — In philosophy and logic, the liar paradox, known to the ancients as the pseudomenon, encompasses paradoxical statements such as This sentence is false. or The next sentence is false. The previous sentence is true. These statements are paradoxical …   Wikipedia

  • Philosophy of information — The philosophy of information (PI) is the area of research that studies conceptual issues arising at the intersection of computer science, information technology, and philosophy. It includes: [Luciano Floridi,… …   Wikipedia

  • Logique mathématique — La logique mathématique, ou logique formelle, est une discipline des mathématiques introduite à la fin du XIXe siècle et qui s est donnée comme objet l étude des mathématiques en tant que langage. Les objets fondamentaux de la logique… …   Wikipédia en Français

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”