John Venn

For other people named John Venn, see John Venn (disambiguation).

John Venn
Born	(1834-08-04)4 August 1834 Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, England
Died	4 April 1923(1923-04-04) (aged 88) Cambridge, England
Nationality	English
Alma mater	University of Cambridge
Awards	Fellow of the Royal Society
Scientific career
Fields	Mathematics LogicPhilosophy
Institutions	University of Cambridge

John Venn, FRS (4 August 1834 – 4 April 1923) was an English logician and philosopher. He is famous for introducing the Venn diagram, which is used in many fields, including set theory, probability, logic, statistics, and computer science.

Signature of John Venn

The Venn Building, University of Hull

Stained glass window at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, commemorating Venn and the Venn diagram

Life and career

John Venn was born on 4 August 1834 in Kingston Upon Hull, Yorkshire to Martha Sykes and Rev. Henry Venn, who was the rector of the parish of Drypool. His mother died when he was three years old. Venn was descended from a long line of church evangelicals, including his grandfather John Venn. He would follow his family lineage and become an Anglican priest, ordained in 1859, serving first at the church in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, and later in Mortlake, Surrey.

He was educated by private tutors until 1853 when he went to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. In 1857, he obtained his degree in mathematics and became a fellow. In 1862, he returned to Cambridge University as a lecturer in moral science, studying and teaching logic and probability theory.

In 1868, he married Susanna Carnegie Edmonstone with whom he had one son, John Archibald Venn.

In 1883, he resigned from the clergy having concluded that Anglicanism was incompatible with his philosophical beliefs. In that same year, Venn was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and was awarded a Sc.D. by Cambridge.

He died on 4 April 1923, the cause of is death was not specified.

Memorials

• Venn is commemorated at the University of Hull by the Venn Building, built in 1928.
• A stained glass window in the dining hall of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, commemorates Venn's work.
• In commemoration of the 180th anniversary of Venn's birth, on 4 August 2014, Google replaced its logo on global search pages with a John Venn Google doodle.

Publications

Venn compiled Alumni Cantabrigienses, a biographical register of former members of the University of Cambridge. This work is still being updated online, see #External links, below. His other works include:

• "Consistency and Real Inference". Mind. 1 (1). January 1876.

• Symbolic Logic. London: Macmillan and Company. 1881. ISBN 1-4212-6044-1.

• "On the Employment of Geometrical Diagrams for the Sensible Representation of Logical Propositions". Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society. 4: 47–59. 1880.

• The Logic of Chance: An Essay on the Foundations and Province of the Theory of Probability, with Especial Reference to Its Application to Moral and Social Science (First ed.). London and Cambridge: Macmillan. 1866. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help). Two further editions were published

• Caius College. London: F. E. Robinson & Company. 1901. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

• Caius, John (1904). John Venn (ed.). The Annals of Gonville and Caius College. Printed for the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, sold by Deighton, Bell & Co. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

• Annals of a Clerical Family: Being Some Account of the Family and Descendants of William Venn, Vicar of Otterton, Devon, 1600-1621. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1904. ISBN 978-1-108-04492-9. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

• On Some of the Characteristicsof Belief. London and Cambridge: MacMillan an Co. 1870. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

References

• Venn, John (1922). Alumni Cantabrigienses: A Biographical List of All Known Students, Graduates and Holders of Office at the University of Cambridge, from the Earliest Times to 1900. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

• Duignan, Brian (22 May 2014). "John Venn (English logician and philosopher)". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 3 August 2014. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |trans_title= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link)

• Anon. "John Venn – Mathematician Biography, Facts and Pictures". Famous-mathematicians.com. Retrieved 3 August 2014.

• Anon (October 2003). "Venn biography". School of Mathematics and Statistics University of St Andrews, Scotland. Retrieved 3 August 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)

• Soylent Communications (2014). "John Venn". Retrieved 3 August 2014. {{cite web}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

• Venn, John (1876). The Logic of Chance: An Essay on the Foundations and Province of the Theory of Probability, with Especial Reference to Its Logical Bearings and Its Application to Moral and Social Science (Second ed.). Macmillan. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

• Venn, John (1888). The logic of chance: an essay on the foundations and province of the theory of probability, with especial reference to its logical bearings and its application to moral and social science, and to statistics (Third ed.). Macmillan. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

External links

• A Cambridge Alumni Database
• The Venn archives clarify the confusing timeline of the various Venns.
• Obituary of John Venn (New York Times)
• Portrait of Venn by Charles Brock, and a link to a site about Venn
• Another (clearer) view of the Venn stained glass window
• John Venn at Find a Grave