Robert Feys (19 December 1889 – 13 April 1961) was a Belgian

logician Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the study of deductively valid inferences or logical truths. It examines how conclusions follow from premises based on the structure of arg ...

and

philosopher 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 ...

, who worked at the University of Leuven (

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

).De Raeymaeker, Louis.
In memoriam le chanoine Robert Feys
" ''Revue Philosophique de Louvain'' 59.62 (1961): 371-374. Feys was born in

Mechelen Mechelen (; ; historically known as ''Mechlin'' in EnglishMechelen has been known in English as ''Mechlin'', from where the adjective ''Mechlinian'' is derived. This name may still be used, especially in a traditional or historical context. T ...

, and received his PhD in 1909 from the Institute of Philosophy, University of Leuven. In 1913 he was appointed Professor at the Université Saint-Louis, Brussels. But due to the War he enlisted in the Army. In 1919 he was appointed Professor at the Institute St. Gertrude in

Nivelles Nivelles (; ; ) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the Belgian province of Walloon Brabant. The Nivelles municipality includes the former municipalities of Baulers, Bornival, Thines, and Monstreux. The Nivelles arrondissement ...

. In 1929 he returned to the Université Saint-Louis, Brussels, and in 1944 he was appointed Professor at the University of Leuven. In 1958 Feys and Haskell B. Curry devised the

type inference Type inference, sometimes called type reconstruction, refers to the automatic detection of the type of an expression in a formal language. These include programming languages and mathematical type systems, but also natural languages in some bran ...

algorithm for the

simply typed lambda calculus The simply typed lambda calculus (), a form of type theory, is a typed interpretation of the lambda calculus with only one type constructor () that builds function types. It is the canonical and simplest example of a typed lambda calculus. The ...

(''Combinatory Logic'').

Selected publications

* Haskell B. Curry, Robert Feys, and William Craig. ''Combinatory Logic.'' Amsterdam, North-Holland Pub. Co., 1958–72. * Robert Feys, ''Dictionary of Symbols of Mathematical Logic.'' Amsterdam : North-Holland Pub. Co., 1973, 1969. French * Feys, Robert. "Les logiques nouvelles des modalités." ''Revue néo-scolastique de philosophie'' 40.56 (1937): 517–553. * Feys, Robert. "Les systèmes formalisés des modalités aristotéliciennes." ''Revue philosophique de Louvain'', 48.20 (1950): 478–509. * Feys, Robert. Étude géologique du Carbonifère briançonnais (Hautes-Alpes), 1957. Vol. 6. ''Éditions Technip'', 1963.

References

1889 births 1961 deaths Belgian logicians 20th-century Belgian philosophers Academic staff of the Old University of Leuven {{Belgium-philosopher-stub