George Boolos

George Stephen Boolos was an American philosopher and mathematical logician, born in New York City in 1940. He earned his A.B. in mathematics from Princeton University, followed by a B.Phil. from Oxford University, and finally a PhD in philosophy from MIT, where he studied under Hilary Putnam. After a brief stint teaching at Columbia University, Boolos returned to MIT, where he spent the remainder of his academic career. He was known for his charisma, clarity, and wit in lectures. Boolos made significant contributions to the field of provability logic, authoring "The Unprovability of Consistency" (1979) and "The Logic of Provability" (1993). He was also an authority on the work of Gottlob Frege, and his research included work on set theory, second-order logic, and the rehabilitation of Frege's system. Boolos co-authored the influential textbook "Computability and Logic" with Richard Jeffrey. His work on puzzles, including "The Hardest Logic Puzzle Ever," showcased his intellectual prowess outside of formal philosophy. He passed away from pancreatic cancer in 1996.