Haskell Curry - Work

Work

The focus of Curry's work were attempts to show that combinatory logic could provide a foundation for mathematics. Towards the end of 1933, he learned of the Kleene–Rosser paradox from correspondence with John Rosser. The paradox, developed by Rosser and Stephen Kleene had proved the inconsistency of a number of related formal systems including the lambda calculus and Curry's own system. However, unlike Church, Kleene, and Rosser, Curry did not give up on the foundational approach, saying that he did not want to "run away from paradoxes."

By working in the area of Combinatory Logic for his entire career, Curry essentially became the founder and biggest name in the field. Combinatory logic is the foundation for one style of functional programming language. The power and scope of combinatory logic is quite similar to that of the lambda calculus of Alonzo Church, and the latter formalism has tended to predominate in recent decades.

He taught at Harvard, Princeton, and from 1929 to 1966, at the Pennsylvania State University. In 1942, he published Curry's paradox. In 1966 he became professor of mathematics at the Universiteit van Amsterdam.

Curry also wrote and taught mathematical logic more generally; his teaching in this area culminated in his 1963 Foundations of Mathematical Logic. His preferred philosophy of mathematics was formalism (cf. his 1951 book), following his mentor Hilbert, but his writings betray substantial philosophical curiosity and a very open mind about intuitionistic logic.