Maxwell John Cresswell (19 November 1939 – 22 September 2024) was a New Zealand philosopher and logician who was known for his work in

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 ...

.''Festschrift for Max Cresswell on the occasion of his 65th birthday.'' In: ''Logique et Analyse.'' Number 181, March 2003 (published November 2004). See the introduction by Thomas Forster.

Education and career

Cresswell received his B.A. in 1960 and M.A. in 1961 from the University of New Zealand and then with the support of a Commonwealth Scholarship attended the

Victoria University of Manchester The Victoria University of Manchester, usually referred to as simply the University of Manchester, was a university in Manchester, England. It was founded in 1851 as Owens College. In 1880, the college joined the federal Victoria University. A ...

, where he received in 1964 his PhD under the supervision of A. N. Prior. Cresswell's thesis was titled ''General and Specific Logics of Functions of Propositions''. After returning to New Zealand, Cresswell was at Victoria University of Wellington, from 1963 to 1967 as a lecturer, from 1968 to 1972 as a senior lecturer (also receiving in 1972 a Lit.D. from Victoria University), becoming a reader in 1973, and then a professor from 1974 to 2000, interrupted by several visiting professorships. In 2001 he became professor emeritus and a member of the Centre for Logic, Language and Computation, Victoria University of Wellington and has been a visiting or fixed-term professor at several universities. Cresswell's research deals with the philosophy of logic,

and formal semantics. He has also published on

ancient Greek philosophy Ancient Greek philosophy arose in the 6th century BC. Philosophy was used to make sense of the world using reason. It dealt with a wide variety of subjects, including astronomy, epistemology, mathematics, political philosophy, ethics, metaphysics ...

, on the logic of the nineteenth century, and on the philosophy of

John Locke John Locke (; 29 August 1632 (Old Style and New Style dates, O.S.) – 28 October 1704 (Old Style and New Style dates, O.S.)) was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of the Enlightenment thi ...

. With his colleague and former teacher George Edward Hughes, Cresswell was the co-author of ''An Introduction to Modal Logic'', London, Methuen, 1968); this was the first modern textbook on modal logic and introduced many students to Kripke semantics. Cresswell died in

Palmerston North Palmerston North (; , colloquially known as Palmerston or Palmy) is a city in the North Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Manawatū-Whanganui region. Located in the eastern Manawatū Plains, the city is near the north bank of the Manaw ...

on 22 September 2024, at the age of 84.

Publications

Monographs and collections

* with G. E. Hughes, ''An Introduction to Modal Logic'', London, Methuen, 1968, German trans.: ''Einführung in die Modallogik''. Berlin, New York : de Gruyter, 1978 * Logics and Languages, London, Methuen, 1973, German trans.: ''Die Sprachen der Logik und die Logik der Sprache'', Berlin, New York : de Gruyter, 1979 * with G. E. Hughes, ''A Companion to Modal Logic'', London, Methuen, 1984 * ''Structured Meanings: The Semantics of Propositional Attitudes'', Bradford Books/MIT Press, 1985 * ''Adverbial Modification, Dordrecht'', Reidel, 1985 * ''Semantical Essays: Possible Worlds and Their Rivals'', Dordrecht, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1988 * ''Entities and Indices'', Dordrecht, Kluwer, 1990 * ''Language in the World'', Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1994 * ''Semantic Indexicality'', Dordrecht, Kluwer, 1996 * with G. E. Hughes, ''A New Introduction to Modal Logic'', London, Routledge, 1996

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cresswell, Max 1939 births 2024 deaths New Zealand logicians 20th-century New Zealand philosophers University of New Zealand alumni Alumni of the University of Manchester Academic staff of Victoria University of Wellington People from Wellington City