Jean Van Heijenoort
Encyclopedia
Jean Louis Maxime van Heijenoort (July 23, 1912, Creil
France - March 29, 1986, Mexico City
) was a pioneer historian of mathematical logic
. He was also a personal secretary to Leon Trotsky
from 1932 to 1939, and from then until 1947, an American Trotskyist activist.
American citizen, he visited France twice a year from 1958 until his death, and remained very attached to his French extended family and friends.
) and the Communist League
. Very soon thereafter, the recently exiled Trotsky hired van Heijenoort as a secretary
and bodyguard, primarily because of his fluency in French, Russian
, German, and English. Thus began seven years in Trotsky's household, during which he served as an all-purpose translator, helping Trotsky write several books and keep up an extensive intellectual and political correspondence in several languages.
In 1939, van Heijenoort moved to New York
to be with his second wife, Beatrice "Bunny" Guyer, where he worked for the Socialist Workers Party (US) (SWP) and wrote a number of articles for the American Trotskyist press and other radical
outlets. He was elected to the secretariat of the Fourth International
in 1940 but resigned when Felix Morrow
and Albert Goldman
, with whom he had sided, left the SWP to join the US Workers Party
. In 1947, he was expelled from the SWP. In 1948, he published an article, signed "Jean Vannier", in the Partisan Review
renouncing Marxism
.
Van Heijenoort was spared the ordeal of McCarthyism
because everything he published in Trotskyist organs appeared under one of more than a dozen pen names.http://www.trotskyana.net/Trotsky_Collection/Trotskyists/Miscellanies/bio-bibl_vanheijenoort.pdf Moreover, Feferman (1993) states that van Heijenoort the logician was quite reticent about his Trotskyist youth, and did not discuss politics. Nevertheless, in his last decade of life he contributed to the ongoing history of the Trotskyist movement by writing the monograph van Heijenoort (1978), by editing a volume of Trotsky's correspondence (van Heijenoort 1980), and by advising and working with the archivists at Harvard University
's Houghton Library
, which holds much of Trotsky's papers from his years in exile.
at New York University
in 1949 under the supervision of J. J. Stoker
, he taught mathematics there but evolved into a logician and philosopher of mathematics, in good part because of the influence of Georg Kreisel
. He began teaching philosophy, first part-time at Columbia University
, then full-time at Brandeis University
, 1965-77. He spent much of his last decade at Stanford University
, writing and editing 8 books, including parts of the Collected Works of Kurt Gödel
.
The Source Book (van Heijenoort 1967), perhaps the most important book ever published on the history of logic
and of the foundations of mathematics
, is an anthology of translations. It begins with the first complete translation of Frege's 1879 Begriffsschrift
, which is followed by 45 historically important short pieces on mathematical logic
and axiomatic set theory, originally published between 1889 and 1931. The anthology ends with Gödel
's landmark paper on the incompletability of Peano arithmetic. For more information on the period covered by this anthology, see Grattan-Guinness (2000).
Nearly all the content of the Source Book was difficult to access in all but the best North American university libraries (e.g., even the Library of Congress
did not acquire a copy of the Begriffsschrift
until 1964), and all but four pieces had to be translated from one of six continental European languages. When possible, the author of the original text was asked to review the translation of his work, and suggest corrections and amendments. Each piece included editorial footnotes, all references were combined into one list, and many misprints, inconsistencies, and errors in the originals were corrected. Especially important are the remarkable introductions to each translation, most written by van Heijenoort himself. A few were written by Willard Quine and Burton Dreben
.
The Source Book did much to advance the view that modern logic begins with, and builds on, the Begriffsschrift
. Grattan-Guinness (2000) argues that this perspective on the history of logic is mistaken, because Frege employed an idiosyncratic notation and was far less read than, say, Peano. Ironically, van Heijenoort (1967a) is often cited by those who prefer the alternative model theoretic
stance on logic and mathematics. Much of the history of that stance, whose leading lights include George Boole
, Charles Sanders Peirce, Ernst Schröder
, Leopold Löwenheim
, Thoralf Skolem
, Alfred Tarski
, and Jaakko Hintikka
, is covered in Brady (2000). The Source Book underrated the algebraic logic of De Morgan, Boole, Peirce, and Schröder, but devoted more pages to Skolem than to anyone other than Frege, and included Löwenheim (1915), the founding paper on model theory.
, now a neighborhood of Mexico City
, van Heijenoort's first wife left him after clashing with Trotsky's spouse. Van Heijenoort was also one of Frida Kahlo
's lovers; in the film Frida
, he is played by Felipe Fulop. Having parted company with Trotsky in 1939 for personal reasons, van Heijenoort was innocent of all circumstances leading to Trotsky's 1940 murder. Van Heijenoort himself was likewise murdered in Mexico City
, 46 years later, by his estranged fourth spouse whom he was visiting at the time. She then took her own life.
Books which Van Heijenoort edited alone or with others:
Creil
Creil is a large town in northern France. It is designated municipally as a commune within the département of Oise.-History:Archaeological remains in the area include a Neolithic site, as well as a late Iron Age necropolis, perhaps belonging to a Gaulish fortress or protected camp.The city itself...
France - March 29, 1986, Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
) was a pioneer historian of mathematical logic
Mathematical logic
Mathematical logic is a subfield of mathematics with close connections to foundations of mathematics, theoretical computer science and philosophical logic. The field includes both the mathematical study of logic and the applications of formal logic to other areas of mathematics...
. He was also a personal secretary to Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....
from 1932 to 1939, and from then until 1947, an American Trotskyist activist.
Life
Van Heijenoort was born in Creil, France. His family's financial circumstances were difficult as his Dutch immigrant father died when van Heijenoort was two. He nevertheless acquired a powerful traditional French formal education, to which his French writings attest. (He also published in Spanish.) Although he eventually became a naturalizedNaturalization
Naturalization is the acquisition of citizenship and nationality by somebody who was not a citizen of that country at the time of birth....
American citizen, he visited France twice a year from 1958 until his death, and remained very attached to his French extended family and friends.
The Trotskyist
In 1932, he joined the Trotskyist movement (recruited by Yvan CraipeauBureaucratic collectivism
Bureaucratic collectivism is a theory of class society. It is used by some Trotskyists to describe the nature of the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin, and other similar states in Central and Eastern Europe and elsewhere .- Theory :...
) and the Communist League
Revolutionary Communist League (France)
See Revolutionary Communist League for the other Ligue communiste révolutionnaire.The Revolutionary Communist League was a French democratic revolutionary socialist political party. It was the French section of the Fourth International...
. Very soon thereafter, the recently exiled Trotsky hired van Heijenoort as a secretary
Secretary
A secretary, or administrative assistant, is a person whose work consists of supporting management, including executives, using a variety of project management, communication & organizational skills. These functions may be entirely carried out to assist one other employee or may be for the benefit...
and bodyguard, primarily because of his fluency in French, Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
, German, and English. Thus began seven years in Trotsky's household, during which he served as an all-purpose translator, helping Trotsky write several books and keep up an extensive intellectual and political correspondence in several languages.
In 1939, van Heijenoort moved to New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
to be with his second wife, Beatrice "Bunny" Guyer, where he worked for the Socialist Workers Party (US) (SWP) and wrote a number of articles for the American Trotskyist press and other radical
Radicalization
Radicalization is the process in which an individual changes from passiveness or activism to become more revolutionary, militant or extremist. Radicalization is often associated with youth, adversity, alienation, social exclusion, poverty, or the perception of injustice to self or others.-...
outlets. He was elected to the secretariat of the Fourth International
Fourth International
The Fourth International is the communist international organisation consisting of followers of Leon Trotsky , with the declared dedicated goal of helping the working class bring about socialism...
in 1940 but resigned when Felix Morrow
Felix Morrow
Felix Morrow was an American communist political activist and newspaper editor. In later years, Morrow left the world of politics to become a book publisher. He is best remembered as a factional leader of the American Trotskyist movement....
and Albert Goldman
Albert Goldman (politician)
Albert Goldman was an American Trotskyist and lawyer to the labor movement.Born Albert Verblen in Chicago, he studied at Medhill High School and then the University of Cincinnati. He also studied to be a rabbi at the Hebrew Union College...
, with whom he had sided, left the SWP to join the US Workers Party
Workers Party (US)
Not to be confused with the modern Marxist-Leninist party, Workers Party, USA.The Workers Party was a Third Camp Trotskyist group in the United States. It was founded in April 1940 by members of the Socialist Workers Party who opposed the Soviet invasion of Finland. They included Max Shachtman,...
. In 1947, he was expelled from the SWP. In 1948, he published an article, signed "Jean Vannier", in the Partisan Review
Partisan Review
Partisan Review was an American political and literary quarterly published from 1934 to 2003, though it suspended publication between October 1936 and December 1937.-Overview:...
renouncing Marxism
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
.
Van Heijenoort was spared the ordeal of McCarthyism
McCarthyism
McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. The term has its origins in the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting roughly from the late 1940s to the late 1950s and characterized by...
because everything he published in Trotskyist organs appeared under one of more than a dozen pen names.http://www.trotskyana.net/Trotsky_Collection/Trotskyists/Miscellanies/bio-bibl_vanheijenoort.pdf Moreover, Feferman (1993) states that van Heijenoort the logician was quite reticent about his Trotskyist youth, and did not discuss politics. Nevertheless, in his last decade of life he contributed to the ongoing history of the Trotskyist movement by writing the monograph van Heijenoort (1978), by editing a volume of Trotsky's correspondence (van Heijenoort 1980), and by advising and working with the archivists at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
's Houghton Library
Houghton Library
Houghton Library is the primary repository for rare books and manuscripts at Harvard University. It is part of the Harvard College Library within the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Houghton is located on the south side of Harvard Yard, next to Widener Library.- History :Harvard's first...
, which holds much of Trotsky's papers from his years in exile.
The logician
After completing a Ph. D. in mathematicsMathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
at New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
in 1949 under the supervision of J. J. Stoker
James J. Stoker
James Johnston Stoker was an American applied mathematician and engineer. He was director of the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences and is considered one of the founders of the institute, Courant and Friedrichs being the others. Stoker is known for his work in differential geometry and...
, he taught mathematics there but evolved into a logician and philosopher of mathematics, in good part because of the influence of Georg Kreisel
Georg Kreisel
Georg Kreisel FRS is an Austrian-born mathematical logician who has studied and worked in Great Britain and America. Kreisel came from a Jewish background; his family sent him to England before the Anschluss, where he studied mathematics at Trinity College, Cambridge and then, during World War...
. He began teaching philosophy, first part-time at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, then full-time at Brandeis University
Brandeis University
Brandeis University is an American private research university with a liberal arts focus. It is located in the southwestern corner of Waltham, Massachusetts, nine miles west of Boston. The University has an enrollment of approximately 3,200 undergraduate and 2,100 graduate students. In 2011, it...
, 1965-77. He spent much of his last decade at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
, writing and editing 8 books, including parts of the Collected Works of Kurt Gödel
Kurt Gödel
Kurt Friedrich Gödel was an Austrian logician, mathematician and philosopher. Later in his life he emigrated to the United States to escape the effects of World War II. One of the most significant logicians of all time, Gödel made an immense impact upon scientific and philosophical thinking in the...
.
The Source Book (van Heijenoort 1967), perhaps the most important book ever published on the history of logic
History of logic
The history of logic is the study of the development of the science of valid inference . Formal logic was developed in ancient times in China, India, and Greece...
and of the foundations of mathematics
Foundations of mathematics
Foundations of mathematics is a term sometimes used for certain fields of mathematics, such as mathematical logic, axiomatic set theory, proof theory, model theory, type theory and recursion theory...
, is an anthology of translations. It begins with the first complete translation of Frege's 1879 Begriffsschrift
Begriffsschrift
Begriffsschrift is a book on logic by Gottlob Frege, published in 1879, and the formal system set out in that book...
, which is followed by 45 historically important short pieces on mathematical logic
Mathematical logic
Mathematical logic is a subfield of mathematics with close connections to foundations of mathematics, theoretical computer science and philosophical logic. The field includes both the mathematical study of logic and the applications of formal logic to other areas of mathematics...
and axiomatic set theory, originally published between 1889 and 1931. The anthology ends with Gödel
Godel
Godel or similar can mean:*Kurt Gödel , an Austrian logician, mathematician and philosopher*Gödel...
's landmark paper on the incompletability of Peano arithmetic. For more information on the period covered by this anthology, see Grattan-Guinness (2000).
Nearly all the content of the Source Book was difficult to access in all but the best North American university libraries (e.g., even the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
did not acquire a copy of the Begriffsschrift
Begriffsschrift
Begriffsschrift is a book on logic by Gottlob Frege, published in 1879, and the formal system set out in that book...
until 1964), and all but four pieces had to be translated from one of six continental European languages. When possible, the author of the original text was asked to review the translation of his work, and suggest corrections and amendments. Each piece included editorial footnotes, all references were combined into one list, and many misprints, inconsistencies, and errors in the originals were corrected. Especially important are the remarkable introductions to each translation, most written by van Heijenoort himself. A few were written by Willard Quine and Burton Dreben
Burton Dreben
Burton Spencer Dreben was an American philosopher specializing in mathematical logic. A Harvard graduate who taught at his alma mater for most of his career, he published little but was highly influential as a teacher and as a critic of the work of his colleagues .-The logician:Dreben was a rare...
.
The Source Book did much to advance the view that modern logic begins with, and builds on, the Begriffsschrift
Begriffsschrift
Begriffsschrift is a book on logic by Gottlob Frege, published in 1879, and the formal system set out in that book...
. Grattan-Guinness (2000) argues that this perspective on the history of logic is mistaken, because Frege employed an idiosyncratic notation and was far less read than, say, Peano. Ironically, van Heijenoort (1967a) is often cited by those who prefer the alternative model theoretic
Model theory
In mathematics, model theory is the study of mathematical structures using tools from mathematical logic....
stance on logic and mathematics. Much of the history of that stance, whose leading lights include George Boole
George Boole
George Boole was an English mathematician and philosopher.As the inventor of Boolean logic—the basis of modern digital computer logic—Boole is regarded in hindsight as a founder of the field of computer science. Boole said,...
, Charles Sanders Peirce, Ernst Schröder
Ernst Schröder
Ernst Schröder was a German mathematician mainly known for his work on algebraic logic. He is a major figure in the history of mathematical logic , by virtue of summarizing and extending the work of George Boole, Augustus De Morgan, Hugh MacColl, and especially Charles Peirce...
, Leopold Löwenheim
Leopold Löwenheim
Leopold Löwenheim was a German mathematician, known for his work in mathematical logic. The Nazi regime forced him to retire because under the Nuremberg Laws he was considered only three quarters Aryan. In 1943 much of his work was destroyed during a bombing raid on Berlin...
, Thoralf Skolem
Thoralf Skolem
Thoralf Albert Skolem was a Norwegian mathematician known mainly for his work on mathematical logic and set theory.-Life:...
, Alfred Tarski
Alfred Tarski
Alfred Tarski was a Polish logician and mathematician. Educated at the University of Warsaw and a member of the Lwow-Warsaw School of Logic and the Warsaw School of Mathematics and philosophy, he emigrated to the USA in 1939, and taught and carried out research in mathematics at the University of...
, and Jaakko Hintikka
Jaakko Hintikka
Kaarlo Jaakko Juhani Hintikka is a Finnish philosopher and logician.Hintikka was born in Vantaa. After teaching for a number of years at Florida State University, Stanford, University of Helsinki, and the Academy of Finland, he is currently Professor of Philosophy at Boston University...
, is covered in Brady (2000). The Source Book underrated the algebraic logic of De Morgan, Boole, Peirce, and Schröder, but devoted more pages to Skolem than to anyone other than Frege, and included Löwenheim (1915), the founding paper on model theory.
The lover
Two of van Heijenoort's four wives each bore him a child. While living with Trotsky in CoyoacánCoyoacán
Coyoacán refers to one of the sixteen boroughs of the Federal District of Mexico City as well as the former village which is now the borough’s “historic center.” The name comes from Nahuatl and most likely means “place of coyotes,” when the Aztecs named a pre-Hispanic village on the southern shore...
, now a neighborhood of Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
, van Heijenoort's first wife left him after clashing with Trotsky's spouse. Van Heijenoort was also one of Frida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo de Rivera was a Mexican painter, born in Coyoacán, and perhaps best known for her self-portraits....
's lovers; in the film Frida
Frida
Frida is a 2002 biographical film which depicts the professional and private life of the surrealist Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. It stars Salma Hayek in her Academy Award nominated portrayal as Kahlo and Alfred Molina as her husband, Diego Rivera....
, he is played by Felipe Fulop. Having parted company with Trotsky in 1939 for personal reasons, van Heijenoort was innocent of all circumstances leading to Trotsky's 1940 murder. Van Heijenoort himself was likewise murdered in Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
, 46 years later, by his estranged fourth spouse whom he was visiting at the time. She then took her own life.
Selected works
- 1967a. "Logic as Language and Logic as Calculus", Synthese 17: 324-30.
- 1978. With Trotsky in Exile: From PrinkipoBüyükadaBüyükada is the largest of the nine so-called Princes' Islands in the Sea of Marmara, near Istanbul, with an area of about two square miles...
to CoyoacánCoyoacánCoyoacán refers to one of the sixteen boroughs of the Federal District of Mexico City as well as the former village which is now the borough’s “historic center.” The name comes from Nahuatl and most likely means “place of coyotes,” when the Aztecs named a pre-Hispanic village on the southern shore...
. Harvard Univ. Press. - 1985. Selected Essays. Napoli: Bibliopolis.
Books which Van Heijenoort edited alone or with others:
- 1967. From Frege To GödelGodelGodel or similar can mean:*Kurt Gödel , an Austrian logician, mathematician and philosopher*Gödel...
: A Source Book in Mathematical LogicMathematical logicMathematical logic is a subfield of mathematics with close connections to foundations of mathematics, theoretical computer science and philosophical logic. The field includes both the mathematical study of logic and the applications of formal logic to other areas of mathematics...
, 1879-1931. Harvard Univ. Press. Reprinted with corrections, 1977. - 1986, 1990. Kurt GödelKurt GödelKurt Friedrich Gödel was an Austrian logician, mathematician and philosopher. Later in his life he emigrated to the United States to escape the effects of World War II. One of the most significant logicians of all time, Gödel made an immense impact upon scientific and philosophical thinking in the...
: Collected Works, Vols. I, II. Oxford Univ. Press. - 1968. Jacques HerbrandJacques HerbrandJacques Herbrand was a French mathematician who was born in Paris, France and died in La Bérarde, Isère, France. Although he died at only 23 years of age, he was already considered one of "the greatest mathematicians of the younger generation" by his professors Helmut Hasse, and Richard Courant.He...
: Ecrits Logiques. Presses Universitaires de France. - 1980. . Paris: Gallimard.
Secondary Literature
- Irving Anellis, 1994. Van Heijenoort: Logic and Its History in the Work and Writings of Jean van Heijenoort. Modern Logic Publishing.
- Brady, Geraldine, 2000. From Peirce to Skolem. North Holland.
- Feferman, Anita Burdman, 1993. From Trotsky to Gödel: The Life of Jean Van Heijenoort. Wellesley MA: A. K. Peters. With an Appendix by Solomon FefermanSolomon FefermanSolomon Feferman is an American philosopher and mathematician with major works in mathematical logic.He was born in New York City, New York, and received his Ph.D. in 1957 from the University of California, Berkeley under Alfred Tarski...
. The Fefermans knew Van Heijenoort professionally and socially for many years. - Ivor Grattan-GuinnessIvor Grattan-GuinnessIvor Grattan-Guinness, born 23 June 1941, in Bakewell, in England, is a historian of mathematics and logic.He gained his Bachelor degree as a Mathematics Scholar at Wadham College, Oxford, got an M.Sc in Mathematical Logic and the Philosophy of Science at the London School of Economics in 1966...
, 2000. The Search for Mathematical Roots: 1870-1940. Princeton Uni. Press.
External links
- The Lubitz TrotskyanaNet provides a biographical sketch and a selective bibliography [more complete than Feferman's] of Jean Van Heijenoort
- A Guide to the Jean Van Heijenoort papers, 1946–1988
- The Origins of the Fourth International by Jean Van Heijenoort