Michael Dummett facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Michael Dummett
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Dummett in 2004
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| Born |
Michael Anthony Eardley Dummett
27 June 1925 London, England
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| Died | 27 December 2011 (aged 86) Oxford, England
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| Education | Christ Church, Oxford (1947–50; B.A., 1950) |
| Spouse(s) |
Ann Dummett
(m. 1951) |
| Awards | Rolf Schock Prize (1995) |
| Era | Contemporary philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | Analytic |
| Institutions | |
| Doctoral students | Eva Picardi Timothy Williamson |
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Main interests
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Sir Michael Anthony Eardley Dummett (27 June 1925 – 27 December 2011) was an English thinker. He was known as one of the most important British philosophers of the last century. He also worked hard to promote fairness for all races.
Until 1992, he was a special professor of Logic at the University of Oxford. He wrote a lot about the history of analytic philosophy, especially about the ideas of Frege. He also came up with new ideas in the philosophies of mathematics, logic, language, and metaphysics. He was famous for his work on truth and meaning. He also helped make the term "anti-realism" popular.
Dummett created a voting system called the Quota Borda system. This system is based on another method called the Borda count. In mathematical logic, he developed a type of logic called Gödel–Dummett logic.
Contents
Early Life and Military Service
Michael Dummett was born on June 27, 1925. His father, George Herbert Dummett, was a silk merchant. Michael went to Sandroyd School and Winchester College. He then earned a scholarship to Christ Church, Oxford in 1943.
That same year, he joined the military. He served until 1947. He was first a soldier in the Royal Artillery. Later, he joined the Intelligence Corps and served in India and Malaya. In 1950, he finished his studies at Oxford with top honors in Politics, Philosophy and Economics. He then became a fellow at All Souls College, Oxford.
Academic Career and Awards
In 1979, Dummett became the Wykeham Professor of Logic at Oxford. He held this important position until he retired in 1992. During this time, he was also a fellow at New College, Oxford.
He taught at many other famous universities around the world. These included Birmingham University, UC Berkeley, Stanford University, Princeton University, and Harvard University. He received the Rolf Schock prize in 1995. In 1999, he was made a knight by the Queen. In 2010, he won the Lauener Prize for his excellent work in analytical philosophy.
Many of his students became well-known philosophers themselves. These included Peter Carruthers and Timothy Williamson.
Philosophical Ideas
Dummett's work on the German philosopher Frege is highly respected. His first book, Frege: Philosophy of Language (1973), took many years to write. It is now considered a classic book. This book helped people rediscover Frege's ideas and influenced many British philosophers.
In 1963, Dummett wrote a paper called "Realism." In this paper, he introduced a new way to understand the old debate between realism and other ideas like idealism. He called these other ideas "anti-realism." He argued that the main difference between realists and anti-realists was how they understood the nature of truth.
Dummett believed that realism is about whether every statement is either truly true or truly false, no matter if we can prove it. Anti-realism, on the other hand, says that truth must be something we can know or show. He thought these debates were similar to the one between intuitionism and Platonism in the philosophy of mathematics.
Dummett supported "semantic anti-realism." This idea suggests that truth isn't the most important thing when we talk about meaning. Instead, we should focus on whether something can be proven or checked.
Fighting for Fairness
Dummett was very active in politics. He worked hard to fight against racism. He even put his philosophy career on hold to help with civil rights for minority groups in the late 1960s. He also studied how voting systems work, which led him to create the Quota Borda system.
He used his experiences in this area to write his book On Immigration and Refugees. In this book, he discussed what fair treatment states should give to people moving between countries. Dummett argued that most opposition to immigration, especially in the UK, was based on racism.
He was shocked to find anti-Jewish and fascist ideas in the diaries of Frege. Dummett had spent a large part of his career studying Frege's work.
In 1955–1956, while in California, Dummett and his wife joined the NAACP. This group works for the rights of Black people. In 1956, he met Martin Luther King Jr. King told him that a British reporter was giving unfair reports about the Civil Rights Movement and the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Dummett traveled to Montgomery and wrote his own report. However, The Guardian newspaper and the BBC refused to publish his article.
Ideas on Voting
Dummett and another person named Robin Farquharson wrote important articles about how voting works. They suggested that voting rules with many choices often lead to "strategic voting." This is when people vote not for their favorite choice, but in a way that helps their preferred outcome. This idea was later proven by other thinkers.
Dummett also wrote a book about voting theory. He also wrote a shorter, easier-to-understand guide about voting for the general public.
Card Games and Tarot History
Dummett was also an expert in the history of card games. He wrote many books and articles on this topic. He helped start the International Playing-Card Society. He regularly wrote for their journal, The Playing-Card. He also helped create the Accademia del Tarocchino Bolognese in Italy.
His historical work on Tarot cards is very famous. His book, The Game of Tarot: From Ferrara to Salt Lake City, tried to show that Tarot cards were invented in 15th-century Italy. He laid the groundwork for most research on Tarot games. He even wrote detailed rules for all known forms of the game.
Dummett's research showed that fortune-telling and magical uses of Tarot cards were not known before the 18th century. For most of their history, Tarot cards were used for a popular trick-taking game. This game is still played in many parts of Europe today. Dummett showed that in the mid-18th century, the Tarot game changed a lot. New decks were made without the old medieval pictures. This made Tarot even more popular.
In 1987, Dummett worked with Giordano Berti and Andrea Vitali on a big Tarot exhibition in Italy. He wrote some parts of the exhibition's catalog.
His Catholic Faith
In 1944, Dummett became a member of the Roman Catholic Church. He remained a devoted Catholic throughout his life. He wrote articles about issues facing the Catholic Church. These were mainly published in the English Dominican journal New Blackfriars. He also wrote an essay defending the Catholic Church's teaching on the Eucharist.
In 1987, one of his articles caused some debate. He seemed to criticize some Catholic ideas that he felt were moving away from traditional beliefs. Dummett argued that the differences between what the Catholic Church claimed to believe and what many of its members actually believed should not be ignored. He felt this was important for the Church's future and its standing in the world.
Later Years and Family
Dummett retired in 1992. In 1999, he was made a knight for his important work in philosophy and for fighting for racial justice. He also received the Lakatos Award in the philosophy of science in 1994.
Sir Michael Dummett passed away on December 27, 2011, at the age of 86. He was survived by his wife Ann (who passed away in 2012) and three sons and two daughters. Sadly, one son and one daughter had passed away before him.
His Books
- On philosophy and logic:
- Frege: Philosophy of Language (1973/1981)
- The Interpretation of Frege's Philosophy (1981)
- Elements of Intuitionism (1977, 2000)
- Truth and Other Enigmas (1978)
- Frege: Philosophy of Mathematics (1991)
- The Logical Basis of Metaphysics (1991)
- The Seas of Language (1993)
- Frege and Other Philosophers (1991)
- Thought and Reality (2006)
- The Nature and Future of Philosophy (2010)
- On voting and elections:
- Voting Procedures (1984)
- Principles of Electoral Reform (1997)
- On politics:
- On Immigration and Refugees (2001)
- On Tarot and card games:
- The Game of Tarot: from Ferrara to Salt Lake City (1980)
- Twelve Tarot Games (1980)
- The Visconti-Sforza Tarot Cards (1986)
- Il mondo e l'angelo: i tarocchi e la loro storia (1993)
- I tarocchi siciliani (1995)
- A Wicked Pack of Cards: The Origins of the Occult Tarot (with Ronald Decker and Thierry Depaulis, 1996)
- A History of the Occult Tarot, 1870-1970 (with Ronald Decker, 2002)
- A History of Games Played with the Tarot Pack (with John McLeod, 2004)
- On writing:
- Grammar and Style (1993)
Images for kids
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A robot for kids.
