Kenneth Jon Barwise (/ˈbɑːrwaɪz/; June 29, 1942 – March 5, 2000)[1] was an American mathematician, philosopher and logician who proposed some fundamental revisions to the way that logic is understood and used.
A pupil of Solomon Feferman at Stanford University, Barwise started his research in infinitary logic.
[3] Barwise contended that, by being explicit about the context in which a proposition is made, the situation, many problems in the application of logic can be eliminated.
He made use of Peter Aczel's non-well-founded set theory in understanding "vicious circles" of reasoning.
The K. Jon Barwise Award for Distinguished Contributions to the Symbolic Systems Program has been given periodically since 2001.