31 Facts About Raymond Smullyan

Raymond Merrill Smullyan was an American mathematician, magician, concert pianist, logician, Taoist, and philosopher.

Raymond Smullyan earned a BSc from the University of Chicago in 1955 and his PhD from Princeton University in 1959.

Raymond Smullyan is one of many logicians to have studied with Alonzo Church.

Raymond Smullyan was born on May 25,1919, in Far Rockaway, Queens, New York, to an Ashkenazi Jewish family.

Raymond Smullyan's father was Isidore Smullyan, a Russian-born businessman who emigrated to Belgium when young and graduated from the University of Antwerp, his native language being French.

Raymond Smullyan's mother was Rosina Smullyan, a painter and actress born and raised in London.

Raymond Smullyan's cousin was the philosopher Arthur Francis Smullyan.

Raymond Smullyan showed musical talent from a young age, playing both violin and piano.

Raymond Smullyan studied with pianist Grace Hofheimer in New York.

Raymond Smullyan started his interest in logic at the age of 5.

Raymond Smullyan played violin in the school orchestra but devoted more time to playing the piano.

Raymond Smullyan sat in on a course taught by Ernest Nagel at Columbia University that was being taken by his cousin, Arthur Smullyan, and independently discovered Boolean rings.

Raymond Smullyan spent a year at the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School.

Raymond Smullyan did not graduate with a high school diploma, but he took the College Board exams to get into college.

Raymond Smullyan studied mathematics and music at Pacific University in Oregon for one semester, and at Reed College for less than a semester, before following the pianist Bernhard Abramowitsch to San Francisco.

Raymond Smullyan audited classes at the University of California, Berkeley, before returning to New York, where he continued his independent study of modern abstract algebra.

At the age of 24, Raymond Smullyan enrolled at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for three semesters, because he wanted to study modern algebra with a professor whose book he had read.

Raymond Smullyan later transferred to the University of Chicago and majored in mathematics.

Raymond Smullyan used to visit his friends Gloria and Marvin Minsky in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Raymond Smullyan received a PhD in mathematics from Princeton University in 1959.

Raymond Smullyan completed his doctoral dissertation, titled "Theory of formal systems", under the supervision of Alonzo Church, which was published in 1961.

Raymond Smullyan later made a compelling case that much of the fascination with Godel's theorem should be directed at Tarski's theorem, which is much easier to prove and equally disturbing philosophically.

Raymond Smullyan subsequently taught at New York University, at the State University of New York at New Paltz, at Smith College, and at the Belfer Graduate School of Science at Yeshiva University, before becoming professor of mathematics and computer science at Lehman College in the Bronx, where he taught undergraduate students from 1968 to 1984.

Raymond Smullyan was a professor of philosophy at the CUNY Graduate Center from 1976 to 1984, where he taught graduate students.

Raymond Smullyan was a professor of philosophy at Indiana University, where he taught both undergraduate and graduate students.

Raymond Smullyan was an amateur astronomer, using a six-inch reflecting telescope for which he ground the mirror.

Raymond Smullyan wrote many books about recreational mathematics and recreational logic.

Raymond Smullyan's book To Mock a Mockingbird is a recreational introduction to the subject of combinatory logic.

Apart from writing about and teaching logic, Raymond Smullyan released a recording of his favorite baroque keyboard and classical piano pieces by composers such as Bach, Scarlatti, and Schubert.

Raymond Smullyan has written two autobiographical works, one entitled Some Interesting Memories: A Paradoxical Life and a later book entitled Reflections: The Magic, Music and Mathematics of Raymond Smullyan.

Raymond Smullyan wrote several books about Taoist philosophy, a philosophy he believed neatly solved most or all traditional philosophical problems as well as integrating mathematics, logic, and philosophy into a cohesive whole.