The Simplicity of Language, the Complexity of Life: A Biography of American Mathematician and Philosopher Richard Montague (1930-1971)

FAIN: FT-291408-23

Ivano Caponigro
Regents of the University of California, San Diego (La Jolla, CA 92093-0013)

Research and writing one chapter for an intellectual biography of the American philosopher and linguist Richard Montague (1930-1971). 

Richard Montague (1930-1971) was a brilliant American logician and philosopher who, among other intellectual achievements, revolutionized our notion of language with an elegant "simple" theory of meaning that was a major breakthrough and started an entirely new subfield in linguistics and philosophy of language: formal semantics. Montague was also a man with a "complex" multi-faceted personality. He was an extremely accomplished organist, a polyglot, a caring friend, a voracious reader and gifted writer, a wealthy real estate investor, and a gay man, who, unlike many gay men of his generation, openly lived with his African-American partner Bob. Montague was found dead by strangulation in his Beverly Hills home at the age of 40. My project will bring the whole Richard Montague back to light by investigating his intellectual contributions and personal life in order to write a biography that aims to be of interest not only for an academic audience but also for a broader group of readers.