Despite the shortness of his life, Frank Plumpton Ramsey had a strong influence on the world of mathematical logic. He launched a new specialty within his field now known as Ramsey theory, which deals with combinatorics. Ramsey was especially enamored of philosophy toward the end of his life and wrote several highly original works on that subject.

Ramsey was born in Cambridge, England on February 22, 1903. His father was president of the town's Magdelene College and his brother would one day become Archbishop of Canterbury. Ramsey received his secondary school education at Winchester College from 1915 to 1920, when he won an academic scholarship to Cambridge's Trinity College. There he concentrated on mathematics, becoming a senior scholar in 1921 and graduating with honors in 1923.

After a short trip to Vienna, Ramsey returned to Cambridge as a fellow at King's College in 1924. (This was testimony to his talent, since the school virtually never...