Hintikka, Jaakko (1929–2015)

Jaakko Hintikka was a Finnish philosopher who developed important new methods and systems in mathematical and philosophical logic. Over a distinguished career in universities in Finland and the USA, he was one of the most cited analytic philosophers and published prolifically in mathematical and philosophical logic, philosophy of language, formal epistemology, philosophy of science and history of philosophy. Hintikka was a pioneer of possible-worlds semantics, epistemic logic, inductive logic, game-theoretical semantics, the interrogative approach to inquiry and independence-friendly logic. He was an expert on Aristotle, Leibniz, Kant, Peirce and Wittgenstein. He also influenced philosophy as a successful teacher and the long-time editor of the journal Synthese.