{{Short description|American philosopher and mathematician}} {{Use mdy dates|date=July 2014}} {{Infobox philosopher | region = Western philosophy | era = Contemporary philosophy | name = Solomon Feferman | image = Feferman Solomon.jpg | caption = Solomon Feferman at the Association of Symbolic Logic, Pittsburgh, May 2004 | birth_date = {{birth date|1928|12|13}} | birth_place = New York City, US | death_date = {{death date and age|2016|07|26|1928|12|13}} | death_place = Stanford, California, US | education = California Institute of Technology (BS) <br> University of California, Berkeley (PhD) | school_tradition = Analytic<br>Predicativism | main_interests = Philosophy of mathematics <br> Proof theory <br> Theory of computation | notable_ideas = Stratified systems for the foundations of category theory<ref>[http://math.stanford.edu/~feferman/papers/ess.pdf "Enriched Stratified systems for the Foundations of Category Theory"] by Solomon Feferman (2011)</ref><br>Feferman–Schütte ordinal<br>Ordinal collapsing function<br>Explicit mathematics<br>Feferman–Vaught theorem | thesis_title = Formal Consistency Proofs and Interpretability of Theories | thesis_year = 1957 | doctoral_advisor = Alfred Tarski | doctoral_students = {{plainlist| *Jon Barwise *Thomas Hofweber *Carolyn Talcott *Bienvenido Nebres }} |website = {{Official website}} }} '''Solomon Feferman''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|f|ɛ|f|ər|m|ən}}; December 13, 1928{{spnd}}July 26, 2016)<ref name=":0">{{Cite web | url=http://www.illc.uva.nl/LogicList/newsitem.php?id=7645 |title = Solomon Feferman (1928-2016)}}</ref> was an American philosopher and mathematician who worked in mathematical logic. In addition to his prolific technical work in proof theory, computability theory, and set theory, he was known for his contributions to the history of logic (for instance, via biographical writings on figures such as Kurt Gödel, Alfred Tarski, and Jean van Heijenoort) and as a vocal proponent of the philosophy of mathematics known as predicativism, notably from an anti-platonist stance.
==Life== Solomon Feferman was born in The Bronx in New York City to working-class parents who had immigrated to the United States after World War I and had met and married in New York. Neither parent had any advanced education. The family moved to Los Angeles, where Feferman graduated from high school at age 16.{{cn|date=May 2025}}
He received his B.S. from the California Institute of Technology in 1948, and in 1957 his Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley, under Alfred Tarski,<ref>{{MathGenealogy|id=19858}}</ref> after having been drafted and having served in the U.S. Army from 1953 to 1955. In 1956 he was appointed to the Departments of Mathematics and Philosophy at Stanford University, where he later became the Patrick Suppes Professor of Humanities and Sciences. While the majority of his career was spent at Stanford, he also spent time as a post-doctoral fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, a visiting professor at MIT, and a visiting fellow at the University of Oxford (Wolfson College and All Souls College).<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://math.stanford.edu/~feferman |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20171024072327/http://math.stanford.edu/~feferman|archive-date = October 24, 2017|title = Solomon Feferman's homepage}}</ref>
Feferman died on 26 July 2016 at his home in Stanford, following an illness that lasted three months and a stroke.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web|last=Lanier Anderson|first=R.|date=4 August 2016|title=A tribute to Solomon Feferman (1928–2016)|url=https://philosophy.stanford.edu/news/tribute-solomon-feferman-1928–2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160911031008/https://philosophy.stanford.edu/news/tribute-solomon-feferman-1928–2016|archive-date=11 September 2016|access-date=24 July 2021|website=philosophy.stanford.edu}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=7 October 2016|title=Stanford mathematical logician Solomon Feferman dies at 87|url=https://news.stanford.edu/2016/10/07/mathematical-logician-solomon-feferman-dies/|access-date=24 July 2021|website=Stanford News|language=en}}</ref> At his death, he had been a member of the Mathematical Association of America for 37 years.<ref>{{Cite web|title=In Memoriam {{!}} Mathematical Association of America|url=https://www.maa.org/news/memoriam|access-date=2021-07-24|website=www.maa.org}}</ref>
==Contributions== Feferman was editor-in-chief of the five-volume ''Collected Works'' of Kurt Gödel, published by Oxford University Press between 2001 and 2013.
In 2004, together with his wife Anita Burdman Feferman, he published a biography of Alfred Tarski, ''Alfred Tarski: Life and Logic''.<ref name=atll/>
Influenced by the writings of Hermann Weyl, he worked on predicative mathematics. In particular, he introduced the Feferman–Schütte ordinal as a measure of the strength of certain predicative systems.
==Recognition== Feferman was awarded Guggenheim Fellowships in 1972 and 1986<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/solomon-feferman/ |title = John Simon Guggenheim Foundation | Solomon Feferman}}</ref> and the Rolf Schock Prize in logic and philosophy in 2003.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://news.stanford.edu/news/2003/june4/feferman-64.html | title=Feferman awarded Rolf Schock Prize in logic and philosophy}}</ref> He was invited to give the Gödel Lecture in 1997<ref>{{Cite web|title=Gödel Lecturers – Association for Symbolic Logic|url=https://aslonline.org/other-information/prizes-and-awards/godel-lecturers/|access-date=2021-11-08|language=en-US|archive-date=November 8, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211108212958/https://aslonline.org/other-information/prizes-and-awards/godel-lecturers/|url-status=dead}}</ref> and the Tarski Lectures in 2006.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Tarski Lectures {{!}} Department of Mathematics at University of California Berkeley|url=https://math.berkeley.edu/about/events/lectures/tarski|access-date=2021-11-08|website=math.berkeley.edu}}</ref> In 2012, he became a fellow of the American Mathematical Society.<ref>[http://www.ams.org/profession/fellows-list List of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society], retrieved December 2, 2012.</ref>
==Publications== ===Papers=== *Feferman, Solomon; Vaught, Robert L. (1959), "The first order properties of products of algebraic systems", ''Fund. Math.'' 47, 57–103. *Feferman, Solomon (1975), "A language and axioms for explicit mathematics", ''Algebra and logic'' (Fourteenth Summer Res. Inst., Austral. Math. Soc., Monash Univ., Clayton, 1974), pp. 87–139, Lecture Notes in Math., vol. 450, Berlin, Springer. *Feferman, Solomon (1979), "Constructive theories of functions and classes", ''Logic Colloquium '78 (Mons, 1978)'', pp. 159–224, Stud. Logic Foundations Math., 97, Amsterdam, New York, North-Holland. *Buchholz, Wilfried; Feferman, Solomon; Pohlers, Wolfram; Sieg, Wilfried (1981), "Iterated inductive definitions and subsystems of analysis: recent proof-theoretical studies", ''Lecture Notes in Mathematics'', 897, Berlin, New York, Springer-Verlag. *Feferman, Solomon; Hellman, Geoffrey (1995), "Predicative foundations of arithmetic", ''J. Philos. Logic'' 24 (1), 1–17. *Avigad, Jeremy; Feferman, Solomon (1998), "Gödel's functional (''Dialectica'') interpretation", ''Handbook of proof theory'', 337–405, Stud. Logic Found. Math., 137, Amsterdam, North-Holland.
===Books=== *Feferman, Solomon (1964) ''The Number Systems, Foundations of Algebra and Analysis'' Addison Wesley. Library of Congress Catalog No.63-12470 *Feferman, Solomon. (1998). ''In the Light of Logic''. Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0-19-508030-0}}, Logic and Computation in Philosophy series.<ref name="ill" /> *{{cite book |last1=Feferman |first1=Anita Burdman |first2=Solomon |last2=Feferman |authorlink2=Solomon Feferman |title=Alfred Tarski: Life and Logic |url=https://archive.org/details/alfredtarskilife0000fefe |url-access=registration |year=2004 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-80240-6 |oclc=54691904 |ref=F-F }}<ref name=atll/>
==See also== *Criticism of non-standard analysis
==References== <references> <ref name=atll>Reviews of ''Alfred Tarski'': *{{citation|last=Dauben|first=Joseph W.|authorlink=Joseph Dauben|journal=Mathematical Reviews|mr=2095748|title=none|year=2005}} *{{citation|last=Anellis|first=Irving H.|authorlink=Irving Anellis|issue=1–2|journal=The Review of Modern Logic|pages=117–130|title=Review|url=https://projecteuclid.org/euclid.rml/1203432186|volume=10|year=2005}} *{{citation|last=Davis|first=Philip J.|author-link=Philip J. Davis|date=March 2005|journal=SIAM News|title=A life of logic and the illogic of life|url=https://archive.siam.org/news/news.php?id=35}} *{{citation|last=Davis|first=Martin|author-link=Martin Davis (mathematician)|date=March–April 2005|issue=2|journal=American Scientist|jstor=27858554|pages=175–177|title=The Man Who Defined Truth|volume=93}} *{{citation|last=Shell-Gellasch|first=Amy|author-link=Amy Shell-Gellasch|date=May 2005|journal=MAA Reviews|title=Review|url=https://www.maa.org/press/maa-reviews/alfred-tarski-life-and-logic}} *{{citation|last=Misiuna|first=Krystyna|date=May 2005|doi=10.1080/01445340412331313602|issue=2|journal=History and Philosophy of Logic|pages=166–168|title=none|volume=26|s2cid=216590845}} *{{citation|last=Mendelson|first=Elliott|date=June 2005|doi=10.1093/philmat/nki020|issue=2|journal=Philosophia Mathematica|pages=231–232|title=none|volume=13|doi-access=free}} *{{citation|last=Kilmister|first=C. W.|author-link=Clive W. Kilmister|date=July 2005|issue=515|journal=The Mathematical Gazette|jstor=3621256|pages=330–331|title=none|volume=89|doi=10.1017/S0025557200177988|s2cid=171454519}} *{{citation|last=Schmit|first=Roger|date=Fall 2005|issue=3|journal=Archives de Philosophie|jstor=43038344|pages=546–547|title=none|volume=68}} *{{citation|last=Maddux|first=Roger D.|author-link=Roger Maddux|date=December 2005|issue=4|journal=The Bulletin of Symbolic Logic|jstor=3396716|pages=535–540|title=none|volume=11|doi=10.1017/S1079898600003000|s2cid=124002889}} *{{citation|date=January 2006|doi=10.1108/k.2006.06735aae.002|issue=1/2|journal=Kybernetes|title=none|volume=35}} *{{citation|last=Lescanne|first=Pierre|date=March 2006|doi=10.1145/1122480.1122489|issue=1|journal=ACM SIGACT News|page=27|title=none|volume=37|s2cid=9529607}} *{{citation|last=Carnielli|first=Walter|date=March 2006|doi=10.12775/llp.2006.005|issue=1|journal=Logic and Logical Philosophy|title=none|volume=15|doi-access=free}} *{{citation|last=Wood|first=Carol|author-link=Carol Wood|date=April 2006|doi=10.2307/27641942|issue=4|journal=The American Mathematical Monthly|jstor=27641942|pages=377–379|title=none|volume=113}} *{{citation|last=Oberdan|first=Thomas|date=June 2006|doi=10.1086/507375|issue=2|journal=Isis|jstor=10.1086/507375|pages=362–363|title=none|volume=97}} *{{citation|last=Grattan-Guinness|first=Ivor|author-link=Ivor Grattan-Guinness|date=September 2006|issue=3|journal=The British Journal for the History of Science|jstor=4028507|pages=469–470|title=none|volume=39|doi=10.1017/S0007087406438681}} *{{citation|last=Apt|first=Krzysztof R.|date=March 2007|doi=10.1007/bf02986214|issue=2|journal=The Mathematical Intelligencer|pages=78–80|title=Alfred Tarski: life and logic|volume=29|s2cid=189883846}} *{{citation|last=Sinaceur|first=Hourya Benis|author-link=Hourya Benis Sinaceur|date=September 2007|issue=8|journal=Notices of the American Mathematical Society|pages=986–989|title=Review|url=https://www.ams.org/journals/notices/200708/tx070800986p.pdf|volume=54}} *{{citation|last=Bassols|first=Alejandro Tomasini|date=April 2006|issue=112|journal=Crítica: Revista Hispanoamericana de Filosofía|jstor=40104969|pages=105–111|title=none|volume=38}} *{{citation|last=Brown|first=Scott H.|date=March 2009|issue=7|journal=The Mathematics Teacher|jstor=20876430|page=558|title=none|volume=102}} *{{citation|last=Bremer|first=Manuel|date=December 2009|issue=6|journal=Philosophy in Review|page=404|title=Review|url=https://go.galegroup.com/ps/anonymous?id=GALE%7CA387953546|volume=29}} *{{citation|last=Nerode|first=Anil|author-link=Anil Nerode|date=March 2010|doi=10.4169/000298910x480144|issue=3|journal=The American Mathematical Monthly|jstor=10.4169/000298910x480144|pages=286–288|title=none|volume=117|s2cid=218549336}} *{{citation|last=Czernecka-Rej|first=Bożena|issue=1|journal=Roczniki Filozoficzne|jstor=43408916|pages=79–84|title=none|volume=59|year=2011}} </ref>
<ref name=ill>Reviews of ''In the Light of Logic'': *{{citation|last=Avigad|first=Jeremy|author-link=Jeremy Avigad|date=December 1999|doi=10.2307/2564698|issue=12|journal=The Journal of Philosophy|jstor=2564698|pages=638–642|title=[Untitled]|volume=96|url=https://semanticscholar.org/paper/08b0919ef041a5a92a8093f5f6b3f5f8a5ecd78e}} *{{citation|last=Antonelli|first=G. Aldo|author-link=Aldo G. Antonelli|date=June 2001|doi=10.2307/2687778|issue=2|journal=The Bulletin of Symbolic Logic|jstor=2687778|pages=270–277|title=none|volume=7|s2cid=122751203}} *{{citation|last=Mendelson|first=E.|journal=Mathematical Reviews|mr=1661162|title=none|year=2001}} </ref> </references>
==External links== * {{cite web |url=https://math.stanford.edu/~feferman/ |title = Official website |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171024072327/http://math.stanford.edu/~feferman |website= Stanford University |archive-date=2017-10-24 |url-status=live |access-date=2026-02-15 }}
{{Schock Prize laureates}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Feferman, Solomon}} Category:1928 births Category:21st-century American mathematicians Category:American logicians Category:Jewish American scientists Category:Jewish American philosophers Category:Mathematical logicians Category:Proof theorists Category:American historians of mathematics Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni Category:Rolf Schock Prize laureates Category:Stanford University Department of Philosophy faculty Category:Stanford University Department of Mathematics faculty Category:American philosophers of mathematics Category:Fellows of the American Mathematical Society Category:2016 deaths Category:21st-century American Jews Category:20th-century American mathematicians