Life
Boolos graduated from Princeton University in 1961 with an A.B. in mathematics. Oxford University awarded him the B.Phil in 1963. In 1966, he obtained the first Ph.D. in philosophy ever awarded by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, under the direction of Hilary Putnam. After teaching three years at Columbia University, he returned to MIT in 1969, where he spent the rest of his career until his death from cancer.
A charismatic speaker well known for his clarity and wit, he once delivered a lecture (1994b) giving an account of Gödel's second incompleteness theorem, employing only words of one syllable. At the end of his viva, Hilary Putnam asked him, "And tell us, Mr. Boolos, what does the analytical hierarchy have to do with the real world?" Without hesitating Boolos replied, "It's part of it".
An expert on puzzles of all kinds, in 1993 Boolos reached the London Regional Final of The Times crossword competition. His score was one of the highest ever recorded by an American. He wrote a paper on "the hardest logic puzzle ever"—one of many puzzles created by Raymond Smullyan.
Read more about this topic: George Boolos
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“... the opportunity offered by life to women is far in excess of any offered to men. To be the inspiration is more than to be the tool. To create the world, a greater thing than to reform it.”
—Alice Foote MacDougall (1867–1945)
“I want a house that has got over all its troubles; I don’t want to spend the rest of my life bringing up a young and inexperienced house.”
—Jerome K. Jerome (1859–1927)
“O that those lips had language! Life has passed
With me but roughly since I heard thee last.”
—William Cowper (1731–1800)