Saul Kripke facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Saul Kripke
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Kripke in 2005
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| Born | November 13, 1940 Bay Shore, New York, U.S.
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| Died | September 15, 2022 (aged 81) |
| Education | Harvard University (B.A., 1962) |
| Awards | Rolf Schock Prizes in Logic and Philosophy (2001) |
| Era | Contemporary philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | Analytic |
| Institutions | Princeton University CUNY Graduate Center |
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Main interests
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Logic (particularly modal) Philosophy of language Metaphysics Set theory Epistemology Philosophy of mind History of analytic philosophy |
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Notable ideas
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List
Kripke–Platek set theory
Work on theory of reference (causal theory of reference, causal-historical theory of reference, direct reference theory, criticism of the Frege–Russell view) Admissible ordinal Kripke structure Rigid vs. flaccid designator A posteriori necessity The possibility of analytic a posteriori judgments Semantic theory of truth (Kripke's theory) Non-analytic, a posteriori necessary truths Contingent a priori Kripke semantics Disquotational principle Accessibility relation Rule-following paradox (Kripkenstein) Humphrey objection |
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 emeritus professor at Princeton University. Since the 1960s, Kripke has been a central figure in a number of fields related to mathematical logic, modal logic, philosophy of language, philosophy of mathematics, metaphysics, epistemology, and recursion theory. Much of his work remains unpublished or exists only as tape recordings and privately circulated manuscripts.
Kripke has made influential and original contributions to logic, especially modal logic. His principal contribution is a semantics for modal logic involving possible worlds, now called Kripke semantics. He received the 2001 Schock Prize in Logic and Philosophy.
Kripke is also partly responsible for the revival of metaphysics after the decline of logical positivism, claiming necessity is a metaphysical notion distinct from the epistemic notion of a priori, and that there are necessary truths that are known a posteriori, such as that water is H2O. A 1970 Princeton lecture series, published in book form in 1980 as Naming and Necessity, is considered one of the most important philosophical works of the 20th century. It introduces the concept of names as rigid designators, true in every possible world, as contrasted with descriptions. It also contains Kripke's causal theory of reference, disputing the descriptivist theory found in Gottlob Frege's concept of sense and Bertrand Russell's theory of descriptions.
Kripke also gave an original reading of Ludwig Wittgenstein, known as "Kripkenstein", in his Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language. The book contains his rule-following argument, a paradox for skepticism about meaning.
Life and career
Saul Kripke was the oldest of three children born to Dorothy K. Kripke and Rabbi Myer S. Kripke. His father was the leader of Beth El Synagogue, the only Conservative congregation in Omaha, Nebraska; his mother wrote educational Jewish books for children. Saul and his two sisters, Madeline and Netta, attended Dundee Grade School and Omaha Central High School. Kripke was labeled a prodigy, teaching himself Ancient Hebrew by the age of six, reading Shakespeare's complete works by nine, and mastering the works of Descartes and complex mathematical problems before finishing elementary school. He wrote his first completeness theorem in modal logic at 17, and had it published a year later. After graduating from high school in 1958, Kripke attended Harvard University and graduated summa cum laude in 1962 with a bachelor's degree in mathematics. During his sophomore year at Harvard, he taught a graduate-level logic course at nearby MIT. Upon graduation he received a Fulbright Fellowship, and in 1963 was appointed to the Society of Fellows. Kripke later said, "I wish I could have skipped college. I got to know some interesting people but I can't say I learned anything. I probably would have learned it all anyway just reading on my own."
After briefly teaching at Harvard, in 1968 Kripke moved to Rockefeller University in New York City, where he taught until 1976. In 1978 he took a chaired professorship at Princeton University. In 1988 he received the university's Behrman Award for distinguished achievement in the humanities. In 2002 Kripke began teaching at the CUNY Graduate Center, and in 2003 he was appointed a distinguished professor of philosophy there.
Kripke has received honorary degrees from the University of Nebraska, Omaha (1977), Johns Hopkins University (1997), University of Haifa, Israel (1998), and the University of Pennsylvania (2005). He was a member of the American Philosophical Society and an elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 1985 was a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy. He won the Schock Prize in Logic and Philosophy in 2001.
Kripke was married to philosopher Margaret Gilbert. He is the second cousin once removed of television writer, director, and producer Eric Kripke.
Saul Aaron Kripke died on September 15, 2022.
Work
Kripke's contributions to philosophy include:
- Kripke semantics for modal and related logics, published in several essays beginning in his teens.
- His 1970 Princeton lectures Naming and Necessity (published in 1972 and 1980), which significantly restructured philosophy of language.
- His interpretation of Wittgenstein.
- His theory of truth.
He has also contributed to recursion theory (see admissible ordinal and Kripke–Platek set theory).
Saul Kripke Center
The Saul Kripke Center at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York is dedicated to preserving and promoting Kripke's work. Its director is Romina Padro. The Saul Kripke Center holds events related to Kripke's work and is creating a digital archive of previously unpublished recordings of Kripke's lectures, lecture notes, and correspondence dating back to the 1950s. In his favorable review of Kripke's Philosophical Troubles, the Stanford philosopher Mark Crimmins wrote, "That four of the most admired and discussed essays in 1970s philosophy are here is enough to make this first volume of Saul Kripke's collected articles a must-have... The reader's delight will grow as hints are dropped that there is a great deal more to come in this series being prepared by Kripke and an ace team of philosopher-editors at the Saul Kripke Center at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York."
Works
- Naming and Necessity. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1972. ISBN: 0-674-59845-8
- Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language: an Elementary Exposition. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1982. ISBN: 0-674-95401-7.
- Philosophical Troubles. Collected Papers Vol. 1. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. ISBN: 9780199730155
- Reference and Existence – The John Locke Lectures. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013. ISBN: 9780199928385
Awards and recognitions
- Fulbright Scholar (1962–1963)
- Society of Fellows, Harvard University (1963–1966).
- Doctor of Humane Letters, honorary degree, University of Nebraska, 1977.
- Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1978–2022).
- Corresponding Fellow, British Academy (1985–2022).
- Howard Behrman Award, Princeton University, 1988.
- Fellow, Academia Scientiarum et Artium Europaea (1993–2022).
- Doctor of Humane Letters, honorary degree, Johns Hopkins University, 1997.
- Doctor of Humane Letters, honorary degree, University of Haifa, Israel, 1998.
- Fellow, Norwegian Academy of Sciences (2000–2022).
- Schock Prize in Logic and Philosophy, Swedish Academy of Sciences, 2001.
- Doctor of Humane Letters, honorary degree, University of Pennsylvania, 2005.
- Fellow, American Philosophical Society (2005–2022).
See also
In Spanish: Saul Kripke para niños
- American philosophy
- List of American philosophers
- Barry Kripke (a character on The Big Bang Theory who is believed to be named after Saul)
