Saul Kripke
American philosopher and logician who revolutionized modal logic.
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Saul Kripke was a highly influential analytic philosopher known for work in logic and philosophy of language.[1] At his death he was Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Computer Science at CUNY Graduate Center.[1]
Life and work
He taught himself Ancient Hebrew by age six and read Shakespeare's complete works by nine.[2] During his sophomore year he taught a graduate-level logic course at MIT.[3] He later taught at Rockefeller University from 1968 to 1976, then took a chaired professorship at Princeton in 1978.[4] His 1970 Princeton lectures, published as Naming and Necessity in 1980, introduced names as rigid designators.[5]
Saul Kripke, together with his two sisters Madeline and Netta, was the first-born child of Dorothy K. Kripke and Myer S. Kripke.[6] Having completed high school in 1958, Kripke then enrolled at Harvard University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics and graduated summa cum laude in 1962.[3]
What the cited sources add
Jerry Fodor wrote that Kripke's writings have had more influence on philosophy in the US and UK than any others since Wittgenstein's death.[7] Fodor also stated that Kripke contributed more to the "demarginalisation" of modality than any other analytic philosopher.[7] A 1977 New York Times article described Kripke as a "budding genius" who inspired awe and excitement among philosophers.[1] Fodor noted that Kripke's metaphysical essentialism has affinities with the metaphysical realism of Aristotle and Augustine.[7]
Fodor claimed that Kripke "almost single-handedly transformed the philosophical landscape" for those who learned philosophy from Quineans.[7]
References
- "Saul Kripke (1940-2022)", 16 September 2022. facts only, no text reused. dailynous.com
- Wikipedia, "Saul Kripke" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Charles McGrath, "Philosopher, 65, Lectures Not About 'What Am I?' but 'What Is I?'", The New York Times, 2006-01-28; A Companion to Analytic Philosophy (Blackwell Companions to Philosophy), by A. P. Martinich (Editor), E. David Sosa (Editor), 38. Saul Kripke (1940–). (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Saul Kripke" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Saul Kripke – The Graduate Center, CUNY" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Saul Kripke" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Saul Kripke | Life, Philosophy, Works, & Facts | Britannica", www.britannica.com (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Saul Kripke" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Quine versus Kripke on the Metaphysics of Modality; What the Tortoise said to Kripke by Romina Padro (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Saul Kripke" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Kripke, "Philosophical Troubles: Collected Papers Volume 1", Oxford University Press, 2011, p. xii (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Jerry Fodor, "Water's water everywhere", London Review of Books, 21 October 2004. facts only, no text reused. lrb.co.uk
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Saul Kripke (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Saul Kripke (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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