Mark Steiner

For the Norwegian-American rock musician, see Mark Steiner (musician).
Mark Steiner
Born(1942-05-06)May 6, 1942
The Bronx, New York, US
DiedApril 6, 2020(2020-04-06) (aged 77)
Shaare Zedek Medical Center, Israel
EducationColumbia University (1965), Ph.D. from Princeton University (1972)
OccupationProfessor of philosophy
EmployerHebrew University of Jerusalem
Known forWriting The Applicability of Mathematics as a Philosophical Problem

Mark Steiner (May 6, 1942 – April 6, 2020) was an American-born Israeli professor of philosophy. He taught philosophy of mathematics and physics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Steiner died after contracting COVID-19 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Biography

Mark Steiner was born in the Bronx, New York.[1] He graduated from Columbia University in 1965 and studied at the University of Oxford as a Fulbright Fellow. He then received his Ph.D. in philosophy from Princeton University in 1972 after completing a doctoral dissertation titled "On mathematical knowledge."[2][3] Steiner taught at Columbia from 1970 to 1977.[3]

Steiner died on April 6, 2020, in Shaare Zedek Medical Center, after contracting the COVID-19 virus during the COVID-19 pandemic in Israel.[4][5]

Academic career

Steiner is best known for his book The Applicability of Mathematics as a Philosophical Problem, in which he attempted to explain the historical utility of mathematics in physics. The book may be considered an extended meditation on the issues raised by Eugene Wigner's article "The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences".[6] Steiner is also the author of the book Mathematical Knowledge.

Steiner also translated Reuven Agushewitz's philosophical work Emune un Apikorses from Yiddish.[7]

References

  1. ^ "Columbia College Today". Retrieved Apr 7, 2020.
  2. ^ Steiner, Mark Jay (1972). On mathematical knowledge.
  3. ^ a b "Columbia College Today". College.columbia.edu. Retrieved 2020-04-08.
  4. ^ אדיר ינקו, 4 חולים נוספים מתו מקורונה – מניין הקורבנות עלה ל-55, April 6th, 2020, ynet
  5. ^ Justin Weinberg, Mark Steiner (1942-2020), April 6th, 2020, Daily Nous
  6. ^ "The Last Magic: Review of The Applicability of Mathematics as a Philosophical Problem by Mark Steiner (Harvard University Press". billdembski.com. Retrieved Apr 7, 2020.
  7. ^ Steiner, Mark (2002). "Philosophizing in Yiddish: Rabbi Reuven Agushewitz on Freedom of the Will". The Torah U-Madda Journal. 11: 1–34. ISSN 1050-4745. JSTOR 40914685.