Michael Dummett | |
|---|---|
 Dummett in 2004 | |
| Born | Michael Anthony Eardley Dummett 27 June 1925 London, England |
| Died | 27 December 2011 (aged 86) Oxford, England |
| Burial place | Wolvercote Cemetery, Oxford |
| Education | Christ Church, Oxford (1947–50;[2] B.A., 1950) |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 7 |
| Awards |
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| Era | Contemporary philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | Analytic philosophy |
| Institutions | |
| Doctoral students | Peter Carruthers Eva Picardi Timothy Williamson Crispin Wright |
Main interests | |
Notable ideas |
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Sir Michael Anthony Eardley Dummett FBA (/ˈdʌmɪt/; 27 June 1925 – 27 December 2011) was an English academic described as "among the most significant British philosophers of the last century and a leading campaigner for racial tolerance and equality."[3] He was, until 1992, Wykeham Professor of Logic at the University of Oxford. He wrote on the history of analytic philosophy, notably as an interpreter of Frege, and made original contributions particularly in the philosophies of mathematics, logic, language and metaphysics.
He was known for his work on truth and meaning and their implications to debates between realism and anti-realism, a term he helped to popularize. In mathematical logic, he developed an intermediate logic, a logical system intermediate between classical logic and intuitionistic logic that had already been studied by Kurt Gödel: the Gödel–Dummett logic. In voting theory, he devised the Quota Borda system of proportional voting, based on the Borda count, and conjectured the Gibbard–Satterthwaite theorem together with Robin Farquharson; he also devised the condition of proportionality for solid coalitions. Besides his main work in analytic philosophy, he also wrote extensively on the history of card games, particularly on tarot card games.
He was married to the political activist Ann Dummett from 1951 until his death in 2011.
- ^ a b Dummett, Michael – Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
- ^ Brown, Stuart, ed. (2005). Dictionary of Twentieth-Century British Philosophers. Vol. 1. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 237.
- ^ "Obituary for Professor Sir Michael Dummett". Telegraph. London. 28 December 2011. Retrieved 29 December 2011.