Mark Steiner (May 6, 1942 – April 6, 2020) was an American-born

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

i professor of philosophy. He taught

philosophy of mathematics The philosophy of mathematics is the branch of philosophy that studies the assumptions, foundations, and implications of mathematics. It aims to understand the nature and methods of mathematics, and find out the place of mathematics in peop ...

and

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Steiner died after contracting

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

Biography

Mark Steiner was born in

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

, New York. He graduated from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in 1965 and studied at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

as a

Fulbright Fellow The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...

. He then received his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

in philosophy from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

in 1972 after completing a doctoral dissertation titled "On mathematical knowledge." Steiner taught at Columbia from 1970 to 1977. Steiner died on April 6, 2020, in

Shaare Zedek Medical Center The Shaare Zedek Medical Center ( he, מרכז רפואי שערי צדק, ''Merkaz Refu'i Sha'arei Tzedek'') (lit. "Gates of Justice") is a large teaching hospital in Jerusalem established in 1902, It affiliated with Hebrew University of Jerusal ...

, after contracting the

virus A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea. Since Dmitri Ivanovsk ...

during the

COVID-19 pandemic in Israel The COVID-19 pandemic in Israel also known as the coronavirus pandemic in Israel ( he, מגפת הקורונה בישראל) is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavi ...

Academic career

Steiner is best known for his book ''The Applicability of Mathematics as a Philosophical Problem'', in which he attempted to explain the historical utility of mathematics in

. The book may be considered an extended meditation on the issues raised by

Eugene Wigner Eugene Paul "E. P." Wigner ( hu, Wigner Jenő Pál, ; November 17, 1902 – January 1, 1995) was a Hungarian-American theoretical physicist who also contributed to mathematical physics. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1963 "for his co ...

's article "

The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences "The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences" is a 1960 article by the physicist Eugene Wigner. In the paper, Wigner observes that a physical theory's mathematical structure often points the way to further advances in that ...

". Steiner is also the author of the book ''Mathematical Knowledge''. Steiner also translated Reuven Agushewitz's philosophical work ''Emune un Apikorses'' from Yiddish.

References

External links

Faculty address page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Steiner, Mark 1942 births 2020 deaths Writers from the Bronx American emigrants to Israel Israeli people of American-Jewish descent Jewish American academics Jewish philosophers Philosophers of mathematics Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Israel Hebrew University of Jerusalem faculty Princeton University alumni 20th-century Israeli philosophers 21st-century Israeli philosophers Columbia College (New York) alumni Columbia University faculty