Charles Leonard Hamblin (20 November 1922 – 14 May 1985) was an Australian philosopher, logician, and computer pioneer, as well as a professor of philosophy at the New South Wales University of Technology (now the

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensiv ...

) in Sydney. Among his most well-known achievements in the area of

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (includi ...

was the introduction of

Reverse Polish Notation Reverse Polish notation (RPN), also known as reverse Łukasiewicz notation, Polish postfix notation or simply postfix notation, is a mathematical notation in which operators ''follow'' their operands, in contrast to Polish notation (PN), in whi ...

and the use in 1957 of a push-down pop-up stack. This preceded the work of Friedrich Ludwig Bauer and

Klaus Samelson Klaus Samelson (21 December 1918 – 25 May 1980) was a German mathematician, physicist, and computer pioneer in the area of programming language translation and push-pop stack algorithms for sequential formula translation on computers. Early ...

on use of a push-pop stack. The stack had been invented by

Alan Turing Alan Mathison Turing (; 23 June 1912 – 7 June 1954) was an English mathematician, computer scientist, logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher, and theoretical biologist. Turing was highly influential in the development of theoretical co ...

in 1946 when he introduced such a stack in his design of the ACE computer. In philosophy, Hamblin is known for his book ''Fallacies'', a standard work in the area of the false conclusions in logic. In formal semantics, Hamblin is known for his computational model of discourse as well as Hamblin semantics (or alternative semantics), an approach to the semantics of questions.

Career and life

Hamblin was born in

Petersham, New South Wales Petersham is a suburb in the Inner West of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Petersham is located 6 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district, in the Local government in Australia, local government area ...

on 20 November 1922. His parents were Charles Oswald Hamblin and Katherine May Whyte. He attended

North Sydney Boys High School North Sydney Boys High School (abbreviated as NSBHS) is a government-funded, single-sex, academically selective secondary day school for boys, located at Crows Nest, on the Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. In 2022, Nor ...

and Geelong Grammar. Interrupted by the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

and radar service in the Australian Air Force, Hamblin's studies included Arts (Philosophy and Mathematics), Science (Physics), and an MA in Philosophy (First Class Honours) at the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb no ...

. He obtained a doctorate in 1957 at the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is a public university, public research university located in London, England and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1895 by Fabian Society members Sidn ...

on the topic ''Language and the Theory of Information'', apparently under Karl Popper, critiquing

Claude Shannon Claude Elwood Shannon (April 30, 1916 – February 24, 2001) was an American mathematician, electrical engineer, and cryptographer known as a "father of information theory". As a 21-year-old master's degree student at the Massachusetts Inst ...

's information theory from a semantic perspective. From 1955, he was lecturer at N.S.W. University of Technology, and later professor of philosophy at the same place, until his death in 1985, during which time the organization had been renamed The University of New South Wales. In the second half of the 1950s, Hamblin worked with the third computer available in Australia, a DEUCE computer manufactured by the

English Electric Company N.º UIC: 9094 110 1449-3 (Takargo Rail) The English Electric Company Limited (EE) was a British industrial manufacturer formed after the Armistice of 11 November 1918, armistice of World War I by amalgamating five businesses which, during th ...

. For the DEUCE, he designed one of the first programming languages, later called GEORGE, which was based on Reverse Polish Notation. His associated compiler (language translator) translated the programs formulated in GEORGE into the machine language of the computer in 1957. Hamblin's work is considered to be the first to use Reverse Polish Notation, and this is why he is called an inventor of this representation method. Regardless of whether Hamblin independently invented the notation and its usage, he showed the merit, service, and advantage of the Reverse Polish way of writing programs for the processing on programmable computers and algorithms to make it happen. The second direct result of his work with the development of compilers was the concept of the push-pop stack (previously invented by Alan M. Turing for the ACE in 1945), which Hamblin developed independently of Friedrich Ludwig Bauer and Klaus Samelson. In the same year, 1957, Hamblin presented his stack concept at the first Australian Computer Conference. The compiler was running before that conference. Hamblin's work influenced the development of stack-based computers, their machine instructions, their arguments on a stack, and reference addresses. The design was taken up by English Electric in their KDF9 computer, delivered in 1963. In the 1960s, Hamblin again increasingly turned to philosophical questions. He wrote an influential introductory book on

formal logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from premis ...

which is today a standard work on

fallacies A fallacy is the use of invalid or otherwise faulty reasoning, or "wrong moves," in the construction of an argument which may appear stronger than it really is if the fallacy is not spotted. The term in the Western intellectual tradition was intr ...

. It focused upon the treatment of false conclusions by traditional logic and brought into that treatment formal dialectic and developed it further. As such, Hamblin is considered as one of the founders of the modern informal logic. Hamblin contributed to the development of modern

temporal logic In logic, temporal logic is any system of rules and symbolism for representing, and reasoning about, propositions qualified in terms of time (for example, "I am ''always'' hungry", "I will ''eventually'' be hungry", or "I will be hungry ''until'' I ...

in two ways. In its very early period he corresponded with

Arthur Prior Arthur Norman Prior (4 December 1914 – 6 October 1969), usually cited as A. N. Prior, was a New Zealand–born logician and philosopher. Prior (1957) founded tense logic, now also known as temporal logic, and made important contribution ...

between 1958 and 1965; this collaboration culminated with the so-called

Hamblin implications Hamblin may refer to: People * Hamblin (surname) * Thomas Sowerby Hamblin, British actor and theatre manager * Henry Thomas Hamblin, British author * Robert W. Hamblin, professor and author *Hamblin González Hamblin González is a Nicaraguan ...

. Later in 1972 Hamblin independently rediscovered a form of

duration calculus Duration calculus (DC) is an interval logic for real-time systems. It was originally developed by Zhou Chaochen with the help of Anders P. Ravn and C. A. R. Hoare on the European ESPRIT Basic Research Action (BRA) ''ProCoS'' project on ''Provably ...

( interval logic), without being aware of the 1947 work of A. G. Walker on this topic, who was not interested in the tense aspect. Hamblin's duration calculus is very similar to that later developed by James Allen and Patrick J. Hayes in the mid 1980s. Hamblin was familiar with ancient Greek and several Asian and Pacific languages and in 1984 published a polyglot phrasebook on 25 of the latter, including "Burmese, Korean, Japanese, Fijian and Tahitian". A classical music lover who played the piano, Hamblin was setting words of Wittgenstein to music while hospitalized with an affliction that proved fatal. He was married to Rita Hamblin. They had two daughters, Fiona Katherine and Julie Claire."Family Notices"
''

The Canberra Times ''The Canberra Times'' is a daily newspaper in Canberra, Australia, which is published by Australian Community Media. It was founded in 1926, and has changed ownership and format several times. History ''The Canberra Times'' was launched in ...

'', 16 May 1985, p. 21. He died at

Darling Point, New South Wales Darling Point is a harbourside eastern suburb of Sydney, Australia. It is 4 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district and is part of the local government area of Woollahra Council. Darling Point is bounded by Sydney Harbour to ...

on 14 May 1985.

Publications

Monographs

* ''Fallacies''. Methuen London 1970, and (paperback), new edition of 2004 with Vale Press, (paperback) – even today a standard work to the topic. *
Elementary Formal Logic: Programmed Course
'. London: Methuen, 1967, * ''Imperatives''. Blackwell Oxford 1987, . * ''Language and the Theory of Information''. PhD Thesis, Logic and Scientific Method Programme,

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

, London, UK. Supervised by Karl Popper, submitted October 1956, awarded 1957. *
Languages of Asia and the Pacific: A Travellers' Phrasebook
'. London: Angus & Robertson Publishers, 1984, .

Articles

* "Translation To and From Polish Notation". ''The Computer Journal'' 5/3, October 1962, pp. 210–213 * '"An Addressless Coding Scheme based on Mathematical notation". ''W.R.E. Conference on Computing: Proceedings'', Salisbury, Weapons Research Establishment 1957 * "GEORGE, an Addressless Coding Scheme for DEUCE". ''Australian National Committee on Computation and Automatic Control, Summarized Proceedings of First Conference'', Paper C6.1, 1960 * "Computer Languages". ''The Australian Journal of Science'' 20, P. 135-139. Reprinted in ''The Australian Computer Journal'' 17/4, pp. 195–198 (November 1985) * "Questions in Montague English". ''Foundations of Language'', 1973, 10: 41–53.

Arranged by date order

The following list of monographs, papers and articles is based on Peter McBurney's list i

published online on 27 July 2008: *C. L. Hamblin 957 An addressless coding scheme based on mathematical notation. Proceedings of the First Australian Conference on Computing and Data Processing, Salisbury, South Australia: Weapons Research Establishment, June 1957. *C. L. Hamblin 957 Computer Languages. The Australian Journal of Science, 20: 135–139. Reprinte
here
in The Australian Computer Journal, 17(4): 195–198 (November 1985). *C. L. Hamblin 957 Review of: W. R. Ashby: Introduction to Cybernetics. Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 35. *C. L. Hamblin

958 Year 958 ( CMLVIII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * October / November – Battle of Raban: The Byzantines under John Tzimiskes ...

Questions. Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 36(3): 159–168. *C. L. Hamblin

Review of: Time and Modality, by A. N. Prior. Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 36: 232–234. *C. L. Hamblin

Surprises, innovations and probabilities. Proceedings of the ANU Symposium on Surprise, Canberra, July 1958. *C. L. Hamblin

Review of: Formal Analysis of Normative Systems, by A. R. Anderson. Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 36. *C. L. Hamblin

GEORGE Programming Manual. Duplicated, 1958. Revised and enlarged, 1959. *C. L. Hamblin

959 Year 959 ( CMLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * April - May – The Byzantines refuse to pay the yearly tribute. A Hungari ...

The Modal "Probably". Mind, New Series, 68: 234–240. *C. L. Hamblin

962 Year 962 ( CMLXII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * December – Arab–Byzantine wars – Sack of Aleppo: A Byzantine e ...

Translation to and from Polish notation. Computer Journal, 5: 210–213. *C. L. Hamblin

963 Year 963 ( CMLXIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * March 15 – Emperor Romanos II dies at age 25, probably of poison admini ...

Questions aren't statements. Philosophy of Science, 30(1): 62–63. *R. J. Gillings and C. L. Hamblin 964 Babylonian reciprocal tables on UTECOM. Technology, 9 (2): 41–42, August 1964. An expanded version appeared in Australian Journal of Science, 27, 1964. *C. L. Hamblin 964 Has probability any foundations? Proceedings of the Symposium on Probability of the Statistical Society of New South Wales, May 1964. Reproduced in Science Yearbook, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 1964. *C. L. Hamblin 964 Review of: Communication: A Logical Model, by D. Harrah. Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 42. *C. L. Hamblin 964 Review of: Analysis of Questions, by N. D. Belnap. Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 42. *C. L. Hamblin 965 Review of: A Preface to the Logic of Science, by P. Alexander. The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 15(60): 360–362. *C. L. Hamblin 966 Elementary Formal Logic, a Programmed Course. (Sydney: Hicks Smith). Republished by Methuen, in London, UK, 1967. Also translated into Swedish by J. Mannerheim, under the title: Element"ar Logik, ein programmerad kurs. (Stockholm: Laromedelsf"orlagen, 1970). *C. L. Hamblin 967 One-valued logic. Philosophical Quarterly, 17: 38–45. *C. L. Hamblin 967 Questions, logic of. Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (New York: Collier Macmillan). *C. L. Hamblin 967 An algorithm for polynomial operations. Computer Journal, 10. *C. L. Hamblin 967 Review of: New Approaches to the Logical Theory of Interrogatives, by L. Aqvist. Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 44. *C. L. Hamblin

969 Year 969 ( CMLXIX) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar, the 969th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 969th year of the 1st millennium, the 69th ...

Starting and stopping. The Monist, 53: 410–425. *C. L. Hamblin

970 Year 970 ( CMLXX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar, the 970th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' designations, the 970th year of the 1st millennium, the 70th yea ...

Fallacies. London, UK: Methuen. *C. L. Hamblin

The effect of when it's said. Theoria, 36: 249–264. *C. L. Hamblin

971 Year 971 ( CMLXXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Battle of Dorostolon: A Byzantine expeditionary army (possibly 30–40,000 men) ...

Mathematical models of dialogue. Theoria, 37: 130–155. *C. L. Hamblin

Instants and intervals. Studium Generale, 24: 127–134. *C. L. Hamblin

972 Year 972 ( CMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Spring – Emperor John I Tzimiskes divides the Bulgarian territories, recent ...

You and I. Analysis, 33: 1–4. *C. L. Hamblin

Quandaries and the logic of rules. Journal of Philosophical Logic, 1: 74–85. *C. L. Hamblin

973 Year 973 ( CMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Spring – The Byzantine army, led by General Melias (Domestic of the S ...

Questions in Montague English. Foundations of Language, 10: 41–53. *C. L. Hamblin

A felicitous fragment of the predicate calculus. Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic. 14: 433–446. *C. L. Hamblin

974 Year 974 ( CMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Battle of Danevirke: Emperor Otto II defeats the rebel forces of King Harald I, who ha ...

La logica dell'iniziare e del cessare. Italian translation by C. Pizzi of an unpublished article: The logic of starting and stopping. Pages 295–317 in: C. Pizzi (Editor): La Logica del Tempo. Torino: Bringhieri. *C. L. Hamblin

975 Year 975 ( CMLXXV) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Arab–Byzantine War: Emperor John I raids Mesopotamia and invades Syria, using ...

Creswell's colleague TLM. Nous, 9(2): 205–210. *C. L. Hamblin

Saccherian arguments and the self-application of logic. Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 53: 157–160. *C. L. Hamblin

976 Year 976 ( CMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * January 10 – Emperor John I Tzimiskes dies at Constantinople, after re ...

An improved "Pons Asinorum"? Journal of the History of Philosophy, 14: 131–136. *C. L. Hamblin

984 Year 984 ( CMLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Spring – German boy-king Otto III (4-years old) is seized by the deposed Henry II ...

Languages of Asia and the Pacific: A Phrasebook for Travellers and Students. (North Ryde, NSW: Angus and Robertson). *C. L. Hamblin 987 Imperatives. Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell. *C. L. Hamblin and P. J. Staines

992 Year 992 ( CMXCII) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Worldwide * Winter – A superflare from the sun causes an Aurora Borealis, with visibility as fa ...

An extraordinarily simple theory of the syllogism. Logique et Analyse, 35: 81.

Patents

* US2849706 "Electronic circuits for deriving a voltage proportional to the logarithm of the magnitude of a variable quantity". Applied 3 Feb. 1953 (applied in Great Britain 4 Feb. 1952), granted 21 Aug. 1958. * US3008640 "Electric Computing Apparatus". Applied 11 Oct. 1954 (applied in Great Britain 13 Oct. 1953), granted 14 Nov. 1961.

References

External links

* Allen, Murray W. (1985)
"Charles Hamblin (1922–1985)"
''The Australian Computer Journal'', 17(4): 194–195.
Special Issue on Charles Hamblin
''Informal Logic'', Vol. 31, No. 4 (2011). * McBurney, Peter
A salute to Charles Hamblin
vukutu.com, 10 January 2011. * McBurney, Peter

at

University of Liverpool , mottoeng = These days of peace foster learning , established = 1881 – University College Liverpool1884 – affiliated to the federal Victoria Universityhttp://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2004/4 University of Manchester Act 200 ...

. * Von Fintel, Kai
Charles Leonard Hamblin
5 July 2013.
C. L. Hamblin
at

PhilPapers PhilPapers is an interactive academic database of Academic journal, journal articles in philosophy. It is maintained by the Centre for Digital Philosophy at the University of Western Ontario, and as of 2022, it has "394,867 registered users, incl ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamblin, Charles Leonard 1922 births 1985 deaths Australian computer scientists Formal methods people Programming language designers Programming language researchers Australian logicians 20th-century Australian philosophers University of New South Wales faculty People educated at North Sydney Boys High School