J. C. C. McKinsey
John Charles Chenoweth McKinsey (30 April 1908 – 26 October 1953), usually cited as J. C. C. McKinsey, was an American mathematician known for his work on game theory and mathematical logic,[2] particularly, modal logic.[3]
J.C.C. McKinsey | |
|---|---|
| Born | 30 April 1908 |
| Died | October 26, 1953 (aged 45) |
| Nationality | American |
| Other names | Chen McKinsey[1]: p. 141 |
| Alma mater | New York University, University of California |
| Known for | Game theory |
| Awards | Guggenheim Fellowship |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematical logic Game theory |
| Institutions | RAND Corporation, Stanford University |
| Thesis | On Boolean functions of many variables |
| Doctoral advisor | Benjamin Abram Bernstein |
| Doctoral students | Jean Rubin |
Biography
McKinsey received B.S. and M.S. degrees from New York University and a Ph.D. degree in 1936 from the University of California, Berkeley.[4] He was a Blumenthal Research Fellow at New York University from 1936 to 1937 and a Guggenheim Fellow from 1942 to 1943.[2][5] He also taught at Montana State College, and in Nevada, then Oklahoma, and in 1947 he went "to a research group at Douglas Aircraft Corporation" that later became the RAND Corporation.[1]: p. 161
McKinsey worked at RAND until he was fired in 1951. The FBI considered him a security risk because he was a homosexual, in spite of the fact that he was an open homosexual who had been in a committed relationship for years. He complained to his superior "How can anyone threaten me with disclosure when everybody already knows?"[6]
From 1951 he taught at Stanford University, where he was later appointed a Full Professor in the Department of Philosophy,[2] where he worked with Patrick Suppes on the axiomatic foundations of classical mechanics.[1]: p. 232 He committed suicide[6] at his home in Palo Alto in 1953.[2]
Selected works
Book
Papers
- McKinsey, J. C. C. (1934). "A reduction in number of the postulates for C. S. Lewis' system of strict implication". Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 40 (6): 425–427. doi:10.1090/s0002-9904-1934-05881-6. MR 1562873. S2CID 120247475.
- McKinsey, J. C. C. (1935). "On the independence of undefined ideas". Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 41 (4): 291–297. doi:10.1090/s0002-9904-1935-06074-4. MR 1563075.
- McKinsey, J. C. C. (1936). "Reducible Boolean functions". Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 42 (4): 263–267. doi:10.1090/s0002-9904-1936-06285-3. MR 1563282.
- McKinsey, J. C. C. (1936). "On Boolean functions of many variables". Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 40 (3): 343–362. doi:10.1090/s0002-9947-1936-1501878-6. MR 1501878.
- McKinsey, J. C. C. (1941). "A solution of the decision problem for the Lewis systems S2 and S4, with an application to topology." The Journal of Symbolic Logic. 6 (4), 117–124. doi:10.2307/2267105
- "A New Definition of Truth". Synthese. 7: 428–433. 1948.
- McKinsey, J. C. C. (1952). "Some notions and problems of game theory". Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 58 (6): 591–611. doi:10.1090/s0002-9904-1952-09648-8. MR 0052748.
- McKinsey, J.; Sugar, A.; Suppes, Patrick (1953). "Axiomatic foundations of classical particle mechanics". Journal of Rational Mechanics and Analysis. 2 (2): 253–72. doi:10.1512/iumj.1953.2.52012.
- "Philosophy and the axiomatic foundations of physics". Proceedings of the 11th International Congress of Philosophy. 6: 49–53. 1953.
With Alfred Tarski
- McKinsey, J. C. C., Tarski, Alfred (1944). "The algebra of topology." Annals of mathematics, 141–191. https://doi.org/10.2307/1969080.
- McKinsey, J. C., Tarski, Alfred (1946). "On closed elements in closure algebras." Annals of mathematics, 122–162. https://doi.org/10.2307/1969038.
- McKinsey, J. C. C.; Tarski, Alfred (1948). "Some theorem about the sentential calculi of Lewis and Heyting". Journal of Symbolic Logic. 13 (1): 1–15. doi:10.2307/2268135. JSTOR 2268135. S2CID 38559151.
References
- Anita Burdman Feferman; Solomon Feferman (2004), Alfred Tarski: Life and Logic, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-80240-6
- Memorial Resolution Archived 2011-07-27 at the Wayback Machine, Stanford Historical Society
- "One of the very first applications of topology to (modal) logic is McKinsey’s 1941 paper." Top of-the Logic - Can Baskent
- John Charles Chenoweth McKinsey at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
- J(ohn) C(harles) McKinsey - John Simon Guggeheim Memorial Foundation
- Abella, Alex (2009). Soldiers of reason : the Rand Corporation and the rise of the American empire. Boston: Mariner Books. p. 74. ISBN 978-0-15-603344-2.
- Wolfowitz, J. (1953). "Review: Introduction to the theory of games by J. C. C. McKinsey" (PDF). Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 59 (3): 267–270. doi:10.1090/s0002-9904-1953-09703-8.