Raymond Smullyan

Raymond Merrill Smullyan was an American mathematician, magician, concert pianist, logician, Taoist, and philosopher, born on May 25, 1919, in Far Rockaway, Queens, New York. His family was of Ashkenazi Jewish descent. Showing early talent in music and logic, he pursued mathematics and logic, earning a BSc from the University of Chicago in 1955 and a PhD from Princeton University in 1959 under Alonzo Church. Smullyan's work significantly impacted formal systems and Gödel's incompleteness theorems, with his 1957 paper being particularly influential. He taught at various institutions, including Dartmouth College, Princeton University, Yeshiva University, and Lehman College. Beyond academia, Smullyan was known for his engaging books on recreational mathematics and logic puzzles, famously featuring knights and knaves. He also explored Taoist philosophy, viewing it as a unifying framework for logic, mathematics, and philosophy. Smullyan passed away on February 6, 2017, in Hudson, New York, leaving a rich legacy in logic, mathematics, and puzzle creation.