Department of Philosophy

Raymond Smullyan, mathematician and logician, was the Oscar R. Ewing Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Indiana University. He was born in Queens, NY. He attended Pacific University and Reed College in Oregon, and then studied math and logic on his own. He learned magic and put together a magic show and performed under the stage name Five-Ace Merrill at nightclubs in Chicago, where he earned his bachelors degree in mathematics at the University of Chicago. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University, and taught at Princeton, Yeshiva University, and Lehman College of the City University of New York before joining the faculty at Indiana University, Bloomington. He wrote over 30 books. He was perhaps best known for his books on logic puzzles, which include This Book Needs No Title, What is the Name of This Book?, The Tao is Silent, To Mock a Mockingbird, The Chess Mysteries of Sherlocke Holmes, The Lady or the Tiger & Other Logic Puzzles, Alice in Puzzleland, and Logical Labyrinths, among others. He appeared on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in 1982. Smullyan was also a musician. He continued to write and publish books in his 90s, publishing fifteen books since 2010, including his most recent book, A Mixed Bag: Jokes, Riddles, Puzzles and Memorabilia (2016), A Beginner's Guide to Mathematical Logic (2014), and Set Theory and the Continuum Problem (2010). Obituaries appeared in the New York Times, The Telegraph, and The Boston Globe. About death, he wrote: "Why should I be worried about dying? It’s not going to happen in my lifetime!”

He died on February 6, 2017 in Hudson, NY, at the age of 97.