Raymond Smullyan
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
"Why should I worry about dying? It's not going to happen in my lifetime!" --This Book Needs No Title |
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Raymond Merrill Smullyan (May 25, 1919 – February 6, 2017) was an American mathematician, concert pianist, logician, Taoist philosopher, and magician.
Born in Far Rockaway, New York, his first career was stage magic. He then earned a BSc from the University of Chicago in 1955 and his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1959. He is one of many logicians to have studied under Alonzo Church.
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Philosophy
Smullyan has written several books about Taoist philosophy, a philosophy he believes neatly solves most or all traditional philosophical problems as well as integrating mathematics, logic, and philosophy into a cohesive whole. One of Smullyan's discussions of Taoist philosophy centers on the question of free will in an imagined conversation between a mortal human and God.
Selected publications
Logic puzzles
- (1978) What Is the Name of This Book? The Riddle of Dracula and Other Logical Puzzles ISBN 0139550623 – knights, knaves, and other logic puzzles
- (1979) The Chess Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes ISBN 0394737571 – introducing retrograde analysis in the game of chess.
- (1981) The Chess Mysteries of the Arabian Knights ISBN 0192861247 – second book on retrograde analysis chess problems.
- (1982) The Lady or the Tiger? ISBN 0812921178 – ladies, tigers, and more logic puzzles
- (1982) Alice in Puzzle-Land ISBN 0688007481
- (1985) To Mock a Mockingbird ISBN 0192801422 – puzzles based on combinatory logic
- (1987) Forever Undecided ISBN 0192801414 – puzzles based on undecidability in formal systems
- (1992) Satan, Cantor and Infinity ISBN 0679406883
- (1997) The Riddle of Scheherazade ISBN 0156006065
- (2007) The Magic Garden of George B. And Other Logic Puzzles ISBN 9788876990663, Polimetrica (Monza/Italy)
- (2009) Logical Labyrinths ISBN 9781568814438, A K Peters
- (2010) King Arthur in Search of his Dog ISBN 0486474356
- (2013) The Godelian Puzzle Book: Puzzles, Paradoxes and Proofs ISBN 0486497054
- (2015) The Magic Garden of George B and Other Logic Puzzles ISBN 978-981-4675-05-5
Philosophy/memoir
- (1977) The Tao is Silent ISBN 0060674695
- (1980) This Book Needs No Title ISBN 0671628313
- (1983) 5000 B.C. and other philosophical fantasies ISBN 0312295162
- (2002) Some Interesting Memories: A Paradoxical Life ISBN 1888710101
- (2003) Who Knows?: A Study of Religious Consciousness ISBN 0253215749
- (2009) Rambles Through My Library ISBN 9780963923165, Praxis International
- (2015) Reflections: The Magic, Music and Mathematics of Raymond Smullyan ISBN 978-981-4644-58-7
- (2016) A Mixed Bag: Jokes, Riddles, Puzzles and Memorabilia ISBN 978-098-6144-57-8
Academic
- (1961) Theory of Formal Systems ISBN 069108047X
- (1968) First-Order Logic ISBN 0486683702
- (1992) Gödel's Incompleteness Theorems ISBN 0195046722
- (1993) Recursion Theory for Metamathematics ISBN 019508232X
- (1994) Diagonalization and Self-Reference ISBN 0198534507
- (1996) Set Theory and the Continuum Problem ISBN 0198523955
- (2014) A Beginner's Guide to Mathematical Logic ISBN 0486492370
- (2016) A Beginner's Further Guide to Mathematical Logic ISBN 978-981-4730-99-0
Bibliography
- Is God a Taoist? by Raymond Smullyan, 1977.
- Planet Without Laughter by Raymond Smullyan, 1980.
- An Epistemological Nightmare by Raymond Smullyan, 1982.
See also