1942 – 2000
Jon Barwise (1942–2000) was an American logician and philosopher of mathematics known for his foundational work in model theory, situation semantics, and the logic of information. He made major contributions to the formal study of natural language meaning and pioneered the use of non-well-founded set theory in semantics and computer science.
Co-developed situation semantics with John Perry as an alternative to possible-worlds semantics
Pioneered admissible sets and infinitary logic in model theory
Applied non-well-founded set theory (with Peter Aczel) to circular phenomena in semantics and computation
Co-authored 'Generalized Quantifiers and Natural Language' advancing formal semantics
Developed the theory of information flow underlying Discourse Representation Theory connections