{"id":3790,"date":"2011-12-29T12:09:39","date_gmt":"2011-12-29T12:09:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/meeseeks:5080\/blog\/?p=3790"},"modified":"2011-12-29T12:09:39","modified_gmt":"2011-12-29T12:09:39","slug":"michael-dummett-rip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/2011\/12\/michael-dummett-rip\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Dummett RIP"},"content":{"rendered":"

The death has just occurred of the philosopher Michael Dummett (1925-2011), formerly\u00a0Wykeham Professor of Logic at Oxford.\u00a0 \u00a0 His writings on the philosophy of language and the philosophy of mathematics have influenced me, particularly his thorough book on intuitionism.\u00a0\u00a0 Having been educated by pure mathematicians who actively disparaged intuitionist and constructivist ideas, I found it liberating to see these ideas taken seriously and considered carefully.\u00a0 The precision of Dummett’s writing and thought clearly marked him out as a member of the Matherati, as also his other formal work, such as that on voting procedures.
\nPOSTSCRIPT (2012-01-21):\u00a0 <\/em><\/strong>The logician Graham Priest remembers Dummett<\/a> as follows:<\/p>\n

It is clear that Dummett was one of the most important \u2014 perhaps the most important \u2014 British philosopher of the last half century. His work on the philosophy of language and metaphysics, inspired by themes in intuitionist logic, was truly groundbreaking. He took intuitionism from a somewhat esoteric doctrine in the philosophy of mathematics to a mainstream philosophical position.
\nPerhaps his greatest achievement, as far as I am concerned, was to demonstrate beyond doubt the intellectual respectability of a fully-fledged philosophical position based on a contemporary heterodox logic. Philosophers in the United Kingdom, even if they do not subscribe to Dummett\u2019s views, no longer doubt the possibility of this. Dummett had an influence in Australia, too. It was quieter there than in the U.K., but the relevant philosophical lesson was amplified by logicians who endorsed heterodox logics of a different stripe (for which, I think, Dummett had little sympathy). The result has been much the same.
\nIn the United States, though, Dummett had virtually no significant impact. Indeed, I am continually surprised how conservative philosophy in the United States is with regard to heterodox logics. It is still awaiting a Dummett to awaken it from its dogmatic logical slumbers.
\nGraham Priest, City University of New York Graduate Center, and the University of Melbourne (Australia)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

References:<\/em>
\nHis Guardian obituary is here<\/a>.\u00a0 An index to posts about members of the Matherati can be found here<\/a>.
\nM. Dummett [1977\/2000]: Elements of Intuitionism.<\/em> (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1st edition 1977; 2nd edition 2000).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The death has just occurred of the philosopher Michael Dummett (1925-2011), formerly\u00a0Wykeham Professor of Logic at Oxford.\u00a0 \u00a0 His writings on the philosophy of language and the philosophy of mathematics have influenced me, particularly his thorough book on intuitionism.\u00a0\u00a0 Having been educated by pure mathematicians who actively disparaged intuitionist and constructivist ideas, I found it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,51,58,60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mathematics","category-matherati","category-obits","category-philosophy-of-language","p1","y2011","m12","d29","h12"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3790\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}