Raymond Smullyan (1919–2017)

Author of What is the Name of This Book?: The Riddle of Dracula & Other Logical Puzzles

52+ Works 4,763 Members 25 Reviews 17 Favorited

About the Author

Raymond Merrill Smullyan was born in Far Rockaway, Queens, New York on May 25, 1919. He received a bachelor's degree in mathematics from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. from Princeton University. He taught at Princeton, Yeshiva University, Lehman College of the City University of New York, show more and Indiana University. He also performed magic under the stage name Five-Ace Merrill at nightclubs like the Pump Room in Chicago. He was a puzzle-creating logician who wrote many books including The Chess Mysteries of the Arabian Knights, The Lady or the Tiger?: And Other Logic Puzzles, Alice in Puzzle-Land: A Carrollian Tale for Children, and The Magic Garden of George B and Other Logic Puzzles. He died on February 6, 2017 at the age of 97. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

Includes the names: Raymond Smullyan, Raymond Smullyan, Raymond M. Smullyan, Raymond M. Smullyan, Richard M. Smullyan, Smullyan Raymond M., Raymond Merrill Smullyan, レイモンド・スマリヤン

Works by Raymond Smullyan

The Tao Is Silent (1977) 485 copies, 6 reviews

The Lady or the Tiger? And Other Logic Puzzles Including a Mathematical Novel That Features Gödel's Great Discovery (1982) 474 copies, 2 reviews

To Mock a Mockingbird (1985) 391 copies

The Riddle of Scheherazade: And Other Amazing Puzzles (1997) 303 copies

Alice in Puzzle-Land (1982) 258 copies, 1 review

The chess mysteries of Sherlock Holmes (1979) 256 copies, 1 review

Forever Undecided: A Puzzle Guide to Godel (1987) 243 copies, 1 review

Satan, Cantor, And Infinity and Other Mind-Boggling Puzzles (1992) 238 copies, 1 review

First-Order Logic (1968) 210 copies

This Book Needs No Title: A Budget of Living Paradoxes (Touchstone Books) (1980) 193 copies

5000 B.C. and Other Philosophical Fantasies (1983) 169 copies, 2 reviews

The Chess Mysteries of the Arabian Knights (1981) 111 copies, 1 review

The Gödelian Puzzle Book: Puzzles, Paradoxes and Proofs (2013) 98 copies, 1 review

Godel's Incompleteness Theorems (1992) 91 copies, 2 reviews

A Beginner's Guide to Mathematical Logic (2014) 88 copies

Who Knows?: A Study of Religious Consciousness (2003) 73 copies, 1 review

Set Theory and the Continuum Problem (1996) 57 copies

Recursion Theory for Metamathematics (1993) 43 copies

Logical Labyrinths (2008) 40 copies

Theory of Formal Systems (1961) 32 copies

King Arthur in Search of His Dog and Other Curious Puzzles (Dover Books on Mathematics) (2010) 27 copies

The Magic Garden of George B. And Other Logic Puzzles (2007) 24 copies

Diagonalization and Self-Reference (Oxford Logic Guides) (1994) 22 copies

Some Interesting Memories: A Paradoxical Life (2002) 22 copies

A Beginner's Further Guide to Mathematical Logic (2016) 17 copies

Reflections : the magic, music and mathematics of Raymond Smullyan (2015) 11 copies, 1 review

Rambles Through My Library (2009) 11 copies

A Mixed Bag: Jokes, Riddles, Puzzles and Memorabilia (2016) 5 copies

Logica De Primeira Ordem (Em Portuguese do Brasil) (2001) 4 copies

Soyez fous ! : La compil (2007) 4 copies

A Spiritual Journey: Reflections on the Philosophy of Religion, A Transcendental Journey, and Cosmic Consciousness… (2009) 3 copies

Musical Memories 1 copy

Caballeros, Bribones Y Pajaros Egocentricos (2012) 1 copy

Robots, Cantor y el infinito: Problemas y brujería matemática (Spanish Edition) (2023) 1 copy

Bosques Curiosos Y Pajaros Aristocraticos 1 copy

Brain Bogglers: Believe It or Not 1 copy

Brain Bogglers: Family Values 1 copy

Brain Bogglers: Al the Chemist 1 copy

Brain Bogglers: The Strange Case of McSnurd 1 copy

Brain Bogglers: Father Know Best (Statistically Speaking) 1 copy

Brain Bogglers: A Puzzler's Potpourri 1 copy

Brain Bogglers: A Sickness Unto Truth 1 copy

Brain Bogglers: Interplanetary Interrogations 1 copy

Brain Bogglers: Isle of Lies 1 copy

Brain Bogglers: Just Say Yes - or No 1 copy

Brain Bogglers; Altered States 1 copy

[(Alice in Puzzle-land)] [By (author) Raymond M. Smullyan] published on (September, 1984) 1 copy

Five Thousand B.C. and Other Philosophical Fantasies 1 copy

First - order logic 1 copy

The Mathematics of Various Entertaining Subjects: Research in Recreational Math 1 copy

Juegos de ajedrez y los misteriosos caballos de Arabia 1 copy

Work Explorer

Associated Works

The Mind's I: Fantasies and Reflections on Self and Soul (1981) — Contributor — 2,839 copies, 22 reviews

Philosophy of Mind: Classical and Contemporary Readings (2002) — Contributor — 299 copies, 1 review

Detective Stories (1998) — Contributor — 281 copies, 1 review

Tagged

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Common Knowledge

Canonical name: Smullyan, Raymond
Legal name: Smullyan, Raymond Merrill
Birthdate: 1919-05-25
Date of death: 2017-02-06
Gender: male
Nationality: USA
Birthplace: New York, New York, USA
Place of death: Hudson, New York, USA
Education: University of Chicago (BSc|1955)
Princeton University (PhD|1959)
Occupations: mathematician
logician
philosopher
magician
Relationships: Church, Alonzo (teacher)

Members

Reviews

The Tao Is Silent by Raymond M. Smullyan

Not much here. Kind of cute, as if Feynman was into Taoism. I liked some of his logic-wordplay, I'm interested in reading something else of his maybe.

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steve02476 | 5 other reviews | Jan 3, 2023 |

Godel's Incompleteness Theorems (Oxford Logic… by Raymond M. Smullyan

What can I say that countless people have not already said? Godel was a genius.

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Drunken-Otter | 1 other review | Aug 20, 2021 |

What is the Name of This Book?: The Riddle of… by Raymond Smullyan

A delightful book of logical puzzles. And you get into some real depth by the time you reach Transylvania. I bought it for the boys so they could relive my childhood, but good for adults as well.

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ben_a | 4 other reviews | Oct 20, 2019 |

5000 B.C. and Other Philosophical Fantasies by Raymond Smullyan

An interesting, jumbled-up collection of essays, dialogs, aphorisms, and puzzles. It approaches all sorts of philosophical questions from all different directions, so in the end you may be left scratching your head, wondering just what it is you've been reading this whole time. In that, it's a bit like how people often describe the experience of reading Hofstasdter's 'Gödel, Escher, Bach'. While this isn't nearly as ambitious or virtuousic as that, it's a fun book written in a likable, approachable voice. I'll definitely check out Smullyan's other works.… (more)