David Charles McCarty, D. Phil

October 20, 1953 - November 25, 2020

David Charles McCarty, D. Phil, died unexpectedly at home on Wednesday November 25, 2020. He was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1953. Professor McCarty received his Doctor of Philosophiae from Oxford University, his M.A. in Philosophy from University of Minnesota Twin Cities, and his M.A. and B.A. in Mathematics from Iowa State University. He was currently a Professor in the Department of Philosophy, Adjunct Professor in both the Department of Computer Science, and Department of History and Philosophy of Science and a Faculty Member in the Intensive Freshman Seminar (IFS) at Indiana University. Prior to coming to Indiana University he was a faculty member at Georgia State University, Florida State University, University of Edinburgh, Ohio State University, and University of Pittsburgh. Professor McCarty conducted research in the field of foundational mathematics and logic, early analytical philosophy, and the history of mathematics and logic in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. He was internationally recognized for his contributions, reflected by his visiting professorships in Poland, Israel, England, Germany, France, Taiwan, Scotland, and Australia. Professor McCarty was an expert in his field, this is reflected in his Indiana University Graduate courses: Mathematical Logic, Computability and Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorems, Wittgenstein’s Tractatus, Foundations of Mathematics, Philosophy of Mathematics, Constructivism in Mathematic, The Later Heidegger, Poetry and Philosophy, Category Theory, Categorical Logic and Set Theory. Undergraduate Courses: Existentialism and Phenomenology, Ancient Philosophy, Classics in Political Philosophy, Classics in Philosophy and Art, Continental Aesthetics in the 20th Century, History of Logic, Set Theory, Intuitionistic Logic, Intermediate Symbolic Logic, Elementary Symbolic Logic, Informal Logic, and The Critical Issue: Philosophy, Film and Music (IFS). Professor McCarty was awarded a Senior Visiting Fellow (8/19-7/20) by the Sidney M. Edelstein Center for the History and Philosophy of Science, Technology and Medicine at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He also received the distinction of Titled Professor: Oscar R. Ewing, Indiana University (2020). Professor McCarty published over 120 peer-reviewed papers on intuitionism, antirealism, realizability, potentially infinite sets, denotational semantics, Church’s Thesis, Markov’s Principle, and the completeness problem for intuitionistic logic. He also served as a referee for many Logic and Philosophy journals. Professor McCarty’s current projects To an Infinite Power. Mathematical and Philosophical Writings of Paul du Bois-Reymond published by Oxford University Press is due to be released in 2021, Intuitionistic Sets and Numbers: Small Set Theory, Heyting Arithmetic, Realizability, Categoricity (under review). He was also serving on the board of directors for Obiter Research in Champaign, IL. Professor McCarty curated a vast library that he used for his research projects which included the first logic book he bought in high school. He was exceptionally proud of the accomplishments of his PhD students. He was an avid reader, loved traveling, exploring museums, eating exotic foods, teaching, mentoring students, taking walks in the woods with his grandson, music - especially Erich Wolfgang Kornold - and opera. He was a wonderful husband, step-father and grandpa. Professor McCarty is preceded in death by his parents. He is survived by his wife Cathy Parker, step-daughter Amanda Parker (Jeff Koleba) and grandson Dean, brothers John McCarty (Sheri), Robert McCarty, sister Ann McCarty (Alfons Connley), seven nieces and nephews. There will be no service at this time. His library will be donated to Wolfson College, Oxford University to continue his legacy.