Cassius Jackson Keyser (15 May 1862 – 8 May 1947) was an American

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

of pronounced

philosophical Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

inclinations.

Life

Keyser's initial higher education was at North West Ohio Normal School (now Ohio Northern University), then became a school teacher and principal. In 1885, he married a fellow student at the Normal School, Ella Maud Crow. He completed a second undergraduate degree, a BSc, at the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou or MU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri, United States. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Univers ...

in 1892. After teaching there, at the New York State Normal School (now SUNY New Paltz), and at Washington University in St. Louis, he enrolled as a graduate student at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

, earning the MA in 1896 and the

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in 1901. He spent the rest of his career at Columbia, becoming the Adrain Professor of Mathematics (1904–27) and Head of the department (1910–16). He retired in 1927. Keyser was one of the first Americans to appreciate the new directions in the

foundation of mathematics Foundations of mathematics are the logical and mathematical framework that allows the development of mathematics without generating self-contradictory theories, and to have reliable concepts of theorems, proofs, algorithms, etc. in particul ...

, heralded by the work of Europeans such as

Richard Dedekind Julius Wilhelm Richard Dedekind (; ; 6 October 1831 – 12 February 1916) was a German mathematician who made important contributions to number theory, abstract algebra (particularly ring theory), and the axiomatic foundations of arithmetic. H ...

Georg Cantor Georg Ferdinand Ludwig Philipp Cantor ( ; ; – 6 January 1918) was a mathematician who played a pivotal role in the creation of set theory, which has become a foundations of mathematics, fundamental theory in mathematics. Cantor establi ...

Giuseppe Peano Giuseppe Peano (; ; 27 August 1858 – 20 April 1932) was an Italian mathematician and glottologist. The author of over 200 books and papers, he was a founder of mathematical logic and set theory, to which he contributed much Mathematical notati ...

Henri Poincaré Jules Henri Poincaré (, ; ; 29 April 185417 July 1912) was a French mathematician, Theoretical physics, theoretical physicist, engineer, and philosophy of science, philosopher of science. He is often described as a polymath, and in mathemati ...

David Hilbert David Hilbert (; ; 23 January 1862 – 14 February 1943) was a German mathematician and philosopher of mathematics and one of the most influential mathematicians of his time. Hilbert discovered and developed a broad range of fundamental idea ...

Ernst Zermelo Ernst Friedrich Ferdinand Zermelo (; ; 27 July 187121 May 1953) was a German logician and mathematician, whose work has major implications for the foundations of mathematics. He is known for his role in developing Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory, Z ...

Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, and public intellectual. He had influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, and various areas of analytic ...

, and A. N. Whitehead. He was also one of the first to appreciate the mathematical and philosophical importance of his fellow American

Charles Sanders Peirce Charles Sanders Peirce ( ; September 10, 1839 – April 19, 1914) was an American scientist, mathematician, logician, and philosopher who is sometimes known as "the father of pragmatism". According to philosopher Paul Weiss (philosopher), Paul ...

Alfred Korzybski Alfred Habdank Skarbek Korzybski (; ; July 3, 1879 – March 1, 1950) was a Polish-American philosopher and independent scholar who developed a field called general semantics, which he viewed as both distinct from, and more encompassing than, ...

, founder of

general semantics General semantics is a school of thought that incorporates philosophy, philosophic and science, scientific aspects. Although it does not stand on its own as a separate list of schools of philosophy, school of philosophy, a separate science, or ...

, named Keyser as a major influence. While at Columbia, Keyser supervised only two PhDs, but they both proved quite consequential: Eric Temple Bell and the logician

Emil Post Emil Leon Post (; February 11, 1897 – April 21, 1954) was an American mathematician and logician. He is best known for his work in the field that eventually became known as computability theory. Life Post was born in Augustów, Suwałki Govern ...

. He became a member of the American board of the '' Hibbert Journal'', and made contributions to that and other philosophical journals. Together with the New International Encyclopedia and his Columbia colleague

John Dewey John Dewey (; October 20, 1859 – June 1, 1952) was an American philosopher, psychologist, and Education reform, educational reformer. He was one of the most prominent American scholars in the first half of the twentieth century. The overridi ...

, Keyser helped found the

American Association of University Professors The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) is an organization of professors and other academics in the United States that was founded in 1915 in New York City and is currently headquartered in Washington, D.C. AAUP membership inc ...

(AAUP). He was a fellow of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science, and a member of the

American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...

Books

*1914. ''Science and Religion: The Rational and the Super-Rational''. *1916. ''The Human Worth of Rigorous Thinking''. Columbia Univ. Press. *1922. ''Mathematical Philosophy, a Study of Fate and Freedom''. *1927. ''Mole Philosophy and Other Essays''. *1932. ''The Meaning of Mathematics''. *1935. ''A glance at some of the ideas of

''. *1935. ''Mathematics and the Question of the Cosmic Mind, with Other Essays''. *1935. ''Three great synonyms: Relation, transformation, function''. *1936. ''Panthetics''. *1938. ''A mathematical prodigy: history and legend''. *1938. ''

Roger Bacon Roger Bacon (; or ', also '' Rogerus''; ), also known by the Scholastic accolades, scholastic accolade ''Doctor Mirabilis'', was a medieval English polymath, philosopher, scientist, theologian and Franciscans, Franciscan friar who placed co ...

''. *1938. '' Benedict Spinoza''. *1939. ''The Role of Mathematics in the tragedy of our modern culture''. *1941. ''

as a pioneer''. Internet Archiv
Eprint
A lecture given o
May 18, 1935
at the Galois Institute of Mathematics at Long Island University. *1942. ''Thinking about thinking''. *1947. ''Mathematics as a culture clue''. *1952. ''The rational and the superrational: studies in thinking''. *2005. ''Mathematics''. Michigan Historical Reprint Series. *2005. ''Mathematical Philosophy: A Study of Fate and Freedom (Lectures for the Educated Laymen)''. Michigan Historical Reprint Series.

References

External links

Biography on the website of Bowling Green State University

Finding aid to Cassius Jackson Keyser papers at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Keyser, Cassius Jackson 1862 births 1947 deaths People from Hancock County, Ohio 19th-century American mathematicians 20th-century American mathematicians 19th-century American philosophers 20th-century American philosophers American science writers American male journalists Columbia University alumni Columbia University faculty Ohio Northern University alumni 19th-century American male writers Journalists from Ohio Washington University in St. Louis mathematicians University of Missouri alumni University of Missouri faculty State University of New York at New Paltz faculty

Life

Books

See also

References

Further reading

External links