Johannes Franciscus Abraham Karel (Johan) van Benthem (born 12 June 1949 in Rijswijk) is a University Professor (') of

logic 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 o ...

at the

University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, ) is a public university, public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Established in 1632 by municipal authorities, it is the fourth-oldest academic institution in the Netherlan ...

at the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation and

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

philosophy 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 ...

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

(at CSLI). He was awarded the Spinozapremie in 1996 and elected a Foreign Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts & Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other F ...

in 2015.

Biography

Van Benthem studied

physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, 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 whi ...

( B.Sc. 1969),

( M.A. 1972) and

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

( M.Sc. 1973) at the University of Amsterdam and received a

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 ...

from the same university under supervision of

Martin Löb Martin Hugo Löb (; 31 March 1921 – 21 August 2006) was a German mathematician. He settled in the United Kingdom after the Second World War and specialised in mathematical logic. He moved to the Netherlands in the 1970s, where he remained in r ...

in 1977. Before becoming University Professor in 2003, he held appointments at the University of Amsterdam (1973–1977), at the

University of Groningen The University of Groningen (abbreviated as UG; , abbreviated as RUG) is a Public university#Continental Europe, public research university of more than 30,000 students in the city of Groningen (city), Groningen, Netherlands. Founded in 1614, th ...

(1977–1986), and as a

at the University of Amsterdam (1986–2003). In 1992 he was elected member of the

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (, KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed in the Trippenhuis in Amsterdam. In addition to various advisory a ...

. Van Benthem is known for his research in the area of

modal logic Modal logic is a kind of logic used to represent statements about Modality (natural language), necessity and possibility. In philosophy and related fields it is used as a tool for understanding concepts such as knowledge, obligation, and causality ...

. This research has resulted in Van Benthem's theorem, which states that propositional modal logic is the fragment of

first-order logic First-order logic, also called predicate logic, predicate calculus, or quantificational logic, is a collection of formal systems used in mathematics, philosophy, linguistics, and computer science. First-order logic uses quantified variables over ...

that is invariant under bisimulation. He has also been active in the fields of

philosophy of science Philosophy of science is the branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods, and implications of science. Amongst its central questions are the difference between science and non-science, the reliability of scientific theories, ...

, logical structures in natural language (

generalized quantifier In formal semantics, a generalized quantifier (GQ) is an expression that denotes a set of sets. This is the standard semantics assigned to quantified noun phrases. For example, the generalized quantifier ''every boy'' denotes the set of sets o ...

s, categorial grammar, substructural

proof theory Proof theory is a major branchAccording to , proof theory is one of four domains mathematical logic, together with model theory, axiomatic set theory, and recursion theory. consists of four corresponding parts, with part D being about "Proof The ...

), dynamic logic and update logic, and applications of

game theory Game theory is the study of mathematical models of strategic interactions. It has applications in many fields of social science, and is used extensively in economics, logic, systems science and computer science. Initially, game theory addressed ...

, as well as applications of

(

game semantics Game semantics is an approach to Formal semantics (logic), formal semantics that grounds the concepts of truth or Validity (logic), validity on Game theory, game-theoretic concepts, such as the existence of a winning strategy for a player. In this ...

). Van Benthem is a member of the group collectively publishing under the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's o ...

L. T. F. Gamut. He has also taught in China. He made an effort to encourage and organize international collaboration between Chinese and Western logicians. Professor van Benthem retired from the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation in September 2014.

Publications

*''Logic in action'', North Holland, 1991 *''Handbook of Logic and Language'', ed. with Alice ter Meulen,

Elsevier Elsevier ( ) is a Dutch academic publishing company specializing in scientific, technical, and medical content. Its products include journals such as ''The Lancet'', ''Cell (journal), Cell'', the ScienceDirect collection of electronic journals, ...

MIT Press The MIT Press is the university press of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The MIT Press publishes a number of academic journals and has been a pioneer in the Open Ac ...

, 1997 *''Modal Logic: A Semantic Perspective'', with Patrick Blackburn *
Modal Logic for Open Minds
'' CSLI Publications, 2010 *''Logic in Games'', MIT Press, January 2014

References

External links

*
Van Benthem's personal homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Benthem, Johan van 1949 births Living people 20th-century Dutch mathematicians 20th-century Dutch philosophers Dutch logicians Logicians Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences People from Rijswijk Stanford University Department of Philosophy faculty Spinoza Prize winners Academic staff of the University of Amsterdam University of Amsterdam alumni Academic staff of the University of Groningen