About Heyting

Arend Heyting (1898-1980) was a student of L.E.J. Brouwer and G. Mannoury and the most important exponent in the previous century, after Brouwer, of Brouwer's intuitionism. His main contributions are

• The first partially successful attempt to present a formalized version of Brouwer's theories, in his papers of 1930: Die formalen Regeln der intuitionistischen Logik and Die formalen Regeln der intuitionistischen Mathematik II, III.
• Contributions to Brouwer's programme of reconstructing mathematics according to intuitionistic principles, in particular algebra and the axiomatics of projective geometry.
• Accessible expositions of intuitionism, notably in his bestseller: Intuitionism, an Introduction (1956, 1966, 1971).

The effect of Heyting's expositions should not be underestimated: it is mainly through his clear expositions that intuitionism did not simply bleed to death but remained a stimulating subject for research.

In recent times intuitionistic logic came to play an important role in the development of type theory and automated proof-checking.