Renowned Logician, Jon Barwise, Dead at 58

I'm sad that I missed this when originally announced, but Jon Barwise, philosopher and logician at Indiana University, died in early March of cancer. I've been reading his book on information theory, some ideas from which have improved parts of my dissertation recently. (And Bijan vouches for Barwise's book on the Liar Paradox.) This is a significant loss for the world of philosophy and philosophical education.

In his fifth research monograph, Information Flow: The Logic of Distributed Systems (1997), coauthored with Jerry Seligman, Barwise proposed a theory of how information flows through complex systems as diverse as computers and natural languages. Central to this theory is the notion of an information channel, capable of preserving information as it is transmitted through a complex, causally interacting system.

During the last year of his life, Barwise conducted an extensive email correspondence with family, friends, and colleagues, cataloging his courageous efforts to deal with and surmount his illness, and his philosophical reflections on life, death, and logic.

Jon taught us how to die," said Irene Scott, wife of Barwise's teacher, Dana Scott.

Jon will be sorely missed as one of the key thinkers and leaders pursuing a broad vision of logic as an analysis of information and cognition," said van Benthem. "My own world suddenly seems lonelier."

(Thanks to Greg Restall for this link.)