Timothy Smiley

Timothy John Smiley
Born	(1930-11-13) 13 November 1930 (age 94) London
Nationality	British
Known for	logic
Scientific career
Fields	Philosophy

Timothy John Smiley FBA (born 13 November 1930) is a British philosopher, appointed Emeritus Knightbridge Professor of Philosophy at Clare College, Cambridge University.[1] He works primarily in philosophy of mathematics and logic.

Life and career

Timothy Smiley was born in London, the son of Professor M. T. Smiley and Mrs T. M. Smiley (née Browne).[2] He was educated at Ardwyn Grammar School, Aberystwyth, followed by Ampleforth College, then went up to Clare College, Cambridge to read Mathematics in 1949. He obtained his BA degree in 1952 followed by a PhD in 1956 on natural systems of logic.[3]

After completing his PhD, he remained at Cambridge on a Research Fellowship at Clare (1955–59), then as a tutor and lecturer in philosophy. He also qualified as a pilot in the Air Ministry and was called to the bar at Gray's Inn.[4]

In 1980 he was appointed Knightbridge Professor of Philosophy, a post he held until his retirement in 1998. In 1982–83 he was President of the Aristotelian Society and in 1984 he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy.[5]

He is the father of the author Sophie Smiley.^[citation needed]

Work

Timothy Smiley has published in a wide range of philosophical areas, including Aristotle, definite descriptions, modal logic, multiple conclusion logic, negation and denial, plurals, set-theoretic foundations for mathematics and validity.

In recent years, he has collaborated on a number of articles on plural descriptions with Alex Oliver.[6][7]

Most recently, Smiley's professional standing was marked by the publication of The Force of Argument: Essays in Honor of Timothy Smiley (T. J. Smiley, Jonathan Lear and Alex Oliver, Routledge, 2010)[8]

Published works

He has edited and contributed to numerous papers and publications. A full bibliography of his work is included in his Festschrift, The Force of Argument: Essays in Honor of Timothy Smiley.[9]

Books

• Studies in the Philosophy of Logic and Knowledge, (co-edited with Thomas Baldwin.)[10]
• Mathematics and Necessity: Essays in the History of Philosophy[11]
• Philosophical Logic[12]
• Philosophical Dialogues: Plato, Hume, Wittgenstein. Dawes Hicks Lectures on Philosophy[13]
• Smiley and D. J. Shoesmith, Multiple-Conclusion Logic (1978) (see multiple-conclusion logic)[14]
• Smiley and Alex Oliver, Plural Logic (2013)

Selected papers

• Sense Without Denotation. Analysis 1960; 20 (6): 125–135. doi: 10.1093/analys/20.6.125
• What is syllogism?. Journal of Philosophical Logic 1973 (2): 136–154.
• The Theory of Descriptions. (1981) In T. J. Smiley & Thomas Baldwin (eds.), Studies in the Philosophy of Logic and Knowledge. Published for the British Academy by Oxford University Press. pp. 131–61.
• Aristotle's completeness proof. Ancient Philosophy. 1994 (14): 25–38.

References

1. Clare College: Master and Fellows
2. "SMILEY, Prof. Timothy John". Who's Who. A & C Black. Retrieved 3 May 2017.
3. "Timothy Smiley". Continuum. Retrieved 3 May 2017.
4. Oliver, Alex (2005). "Smiley, Timothy (1930–)". In Brown, Stuart (ed.). The Dictionary of Twentieth Century British Philosophers. Thoemmes Press. p. 971.
5. "Professor Timothy Smiley FBA". The British Academy. Retrieved 31 January 2025.
6. Philosophical papers, online listing of Plural Descriptions and Many-Valued Functions, Alex Oliver and Timothy Oliver, 2005. Retrieved 30 December 2010
7. Philosophical papers, online listing of What Are Sets, and What Are They For?, Alex Oliver and Timothy Oliver, 2006. Retrieved 30 December 2010
8. Philosophical papers, online listing of The Force of Argument: Essays in Honor of Timothy Smiley. Retrieved 30 December 2010
9. Lear, Jonathan; Oliver, Alex, eds. (2010). The Force of Argument: Essays in Honor of Timothy Smiley. Routledge. pp. 259–260. ISBN 9781138868496.
10. Studies in the Philosophy of Logic and Knowledge, (co-edited with Thomas Baldwin.) Oxford University Press for the British Academy, 2005 Archived 29 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 30 December 2010
11. "Mathematics and Necessity: Essays in the History of Philosophy". The British Academy. Retrieved 31 January 2025.
12. "Philosophical Logic". The British Academy. Retrieved 31 January 2025.
13. "Philosophical Dialogues: Plato, Hume, Wittgenstein". The British Academy. Retrieved 31 January 2025.
14. Cambridge University Press – publication listing. Multiple Conclusion Logic by D. J. Shoesmith and T. J. Smiley, reprinted 2009. Retrieved 30 December 2010

External links

• Clare College, Cambridge