Kaarlo Jaakko Juhani Hintikka (12 January 1929 – 12 August 2015) was a Finnish philosopher and

logician 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 premises ...

Life and career

Hintikka was born in Helsingin maalaiskunta (now Vantaa). In 1953, he received his doctorate from the

University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki ( fi, Helsingin yliopisto, sv, Helsingfors universitet, abbreviated UH) is a public research university located in Helsinki, Finland since 1829, but founded in the city of Turku (in Swedish ''Åbo'') in 1640 as the ...

for a thesis entitled ''Distributive Normal Forms in the Calculus of Predicates''. He was a student of

Georg Henrik von Wright Georg Henrik von Wright (; 14 June 1916 – 16 June 2003) was a Finnish philosopher. Biography G. H. von Wright was born in Helsinki on 14 June 1916 to Tor von Wright and his wife Ragni Elisabeth Alfthan. On the retirement of Ludwig Wittgenste ...

. Hintikka was a Junior Fellow at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

(1956-1969), and held several professorial appointments at the University of Helsinki, the Academy of Finland, Stanford University, Florida State University and finally

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with ...

from 1990 until his death. He was the prolific author or co-author of over 30 books and over 300 scholarly articles, Hintikka contributed to

mathematical logic Mathematical logic is the study of formal logic within mathematics. Major subareas include model theory, proof theory, set theory, and recursion theory. Research in mathematical logic commonly addresses the mathematical properties of formal ...

, philosophical logic, the

philosophy of mathematics The philosophy of mathematics is the branch of philosophy that studies the assumptions, foundations, and implications of mathematics. It aims to understand the nature and methods of mathematics, and find out the place of mathematics in peop ...

epistemology Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics. Epis ...

, language theory, and the

philosophy of science Philosophy of science is a branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods, and implications of science. The central questions of this study concern what qualifies as science, the reliability of scientific theories, and the ult ...

. His works have appeared in over nine languages. Hintikka edited the

academic journal An academic journal or scholarly journal is a periodical publication in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as permanent and transparent forums for the presentation, scrutiny, and ...

Synthese ''Synthese'' () is a scholarly periodical specializing in papers in epistemology, methodology, and philosophy of science, and related issues. Its subject area is divided into four specialties, with a focus on the first three: (1) "epistemology, me ...

'' from 1962 to 2002, and was a consultant editor for more than ten journals. He was the first vice-president of the Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie, the Vice-President of the

Institut International de Philosophie An institute is an organisational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes can ...

(1993–1996), as well as a member of the

American Philosophical Association The American Philosophical Association (APA) is the main professional organization for philosophers in the United States. Founded in 1900, its mission is to promote the exchange of ideas among philosophers, to encourage creative and scholarl ...

, the International Union of History and Philosophy of Science,

Association for Symbolic Logic The Association for Symbolic Logic (ASL) is an international organization of specialists in mathematical logic and philosophical logic. The ASL was founded in 1936, and its first president was Alonzo Church. The current president of the ASL is ...

, and a member of the governing board of the

Philosophy of Science Association The Philosophy of Science Association (PSA) is an international academic organization founded in 1933 that promotes research, teaching, and free discussion of issues in the philosophy of science from diverse standpoints. The PSA engages in activit ...

. In 2005, he won the

Rolf Schock Prize The Rolf Schock Prizes were established and endowed by bequest of philosopher and artist Rolf Schock (1933–1986). The prizes were first awarded in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1993 and, since 2005, are awarded every three years. Each recipient current ...

in logic and philosophy "for his pioneering contributions to the logical analysis of modal concepts, in particular the concepts of knowledge and belief". In 1985, he was president of the Florida Philosophical Association. He was a member of the

Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters ( no, Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi, DNVA) is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway. Its purpose is to support the advancement of science and scholarship in Norway. History The Royal Frederick Unive ...

. On May 26, 2000 Hintikka received an

honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...

from the Faculty of History and Philosophy at

Uppsala University Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. The university rose to significance during ...

, Sweden

Philosophical work

Hintikka is regarded as the founder of formal

epistemic logic Epistemic modal logic is a subfield of modal logic that is concerned with reasoning about knowledge. While epistemology has a long philosophical tradition dating back to Ancient Greece, epistemic logic is a much more recent development with applica ...

and of

game semantics Game semantics (german: dialogische Logik, translated as ''dialogical logic'') is an approach to Formal semantics (logic), formal semantics that grounds the concepts of truth or Validity (logic), validity on game theory, game-theoretic concepts, su ...

for logic. Early in his career, he devised a semantics of modal logic essentially analogous to

Saul Kripke Saul Aaron Kripke (; November 13, 1940 – September 15, 2022) was an American philosopher and logician in the analytic tradition. He was a Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and em ...

's frame semantics, and discovered the now widely taught semantic tableau, independently of

Evert Willem Beth Evert Willem Beth (7 July 1908 – 12 April 1964) was a Dutch philosopher and logician, whose work principally concerned the foundations of mathematics. He was a member of the Significs Group. Biography Beth was born in Almelo, a small ...

. Later, he worked mainly on game semantics, and on

independence-friendly logic Independence-friendly logic (IF logic; proposed by Jaakko Hintikka and in 1989) is an extension of classical first-order logic (FOL) by means of slashed quantifiers of the form (\exists v/V) and (\forall v/V), where V is a finite set of variables. ...

, known for its " branching quantifiers", which he believed do better justice to our intuitions about quantifiers than does conventional

first-order logic First-order logic—also known as predicate logic, quantificational logic, and first-order predicate calculus—is a collection of formal systems used in mathematics, philosophy, linguistics, and computer science. First-order logic uses quantifie ...

. He did important exegetical work on

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ph ...

Immanuel Kant Immanuel Kant (, , ; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and ...

Ludwig Wittgenstein Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He is con ...

, and

Charles Sanders Peirce Charles Sanders Peirce ( ; September 10, 1839 – April 19, 1914) was an American philosopher, logician, mathematician and scientist who is sometimes known as "the father of pragmatism". Educated as a chemist and employed as a scientist for t ...

. Hintikka's work can be seen as a continuation of the analytic tendency in philosophy founded by

Franz Brentano Franz Clemens Honoratus Hermann Josef Brentano (; ; 16 January 1838 – 17 March 1917) was an influential German philosopher, psychologist, and former Catholic priest (withdrawn in 1873 due to the definition of papal infallibility in matters ...

and Peirce, advanced by

Gottlob Frege Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege (; ; 8 November 1848 – 26 July 1925) was a German philosopher, logician, and mathematician. He was a mathematics professor at the University of Jena, and is understood by many to be the father of analytic ph ...

and

Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, ...

, and continued by Rudolf Carnap,

Willard Van Orman Quine Willard Van Orman Quine (; known to his friends as "Van"; June 25, 1908 – December 25, 2000) was an American philosopher and logician in the analytic tradition, recognized as "one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century" ...

, and by Hintikka's teacher

. For instance, in 1998 he wrote ''The Principles of Mathematics Revisited'', which takes an exploratory stance comparable to that Russell made with his ''

The Principles of Mathematics ''The Principles of Mathematics'' (''PoM'') is a 1903 book by Bertrand Russell, in which the author presented his famous Russell's paradox, paradox and argued his thesis that mathematics and logic are identical. The book presents a view of ...

'' in 1903.

Selected books

For a bibliography, see Auxier and Hahn (2006). * 1962. ''Knowledge and Belief – An Introduction to the Logic of the Two Notions'' * 1969. ''Models for Modalities: Selected Essays'' * 1975. ''The intentions of intentionality and other new models for modalities'' * 1976. ''The semantics of questions and the questions of semantics: case studies in the interrelations of logic, semantics, and syntax'' * 1989
''The Logic of Epistemology and the Epistemology of Logic''
* 1996. ''Ludwig Wittgenstein: Half-Truths and One-and-a-Half-Truths'' * 1996. ''Lingua Universalis vs Calculus Ratiocinator'' * 1996

* 1998. ''Paradigms for Language Theory and Other Essays'' * 1998. ''Language, Truth and Logic in Mathematics'' * 1999. ''Inquiry as Inquiry: A Logic of Scientific Discovery'' * 2004. ''Analyses of Aristotle'' * 2007. ''Socratic Epistemology: Explorations of Knowledge-Seeking by Questioning''

Notes

External links

*
Jaakko Hintikka's personal website

''Helsinki Times''.
Jaakko Hintikka in 375 humanists – 20 May 2015.
Faculty of Arts, University of Helsinki. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hintikka, Jaakko 1929 births 20th-century Finnish philosophers 21st-century Finnish philosophers Analytic philosophers Florida State University faculty Game theorists 2015 deaths Logicians Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters Foreign Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences Modal logicians People from Vantaa Philosophers of language Philosophers of mathematics Rolf Schock Prize laureates Boston University faculty Finnish expatriates in the United States Harvard Fellows Members of the American Philosophical Society

Life and career

Philosophical work

Selected books

See also

Notes

Further reading

External links