Jesus Mari Larrazabal, ILCLI Emeritus Honorary Fellow and Professor of Logic (retired), died today, June 29. His family and close friends were by his side.

Jesus Mari Larrazabal Antia (Zumaia, 1948) studied philosophy and economics at the universities of Paris X, Valencia and the Basque Country. He was a Professor of logic since 1992 until his retirement, in 2017. His passion for logic started very early when, still on his teens, he became interested in the philosophy of mathematical modeling in the social sciences. His research in logic began by doing model theory and working on the foundations of mathematics, and evolved over the years into the semantic applications of logic to natural language and to systems of cognition and action. He published an important number of articles in journal and collections, and he supervised an impressive number of PhDs during his career.

Jesus Mari conceived, created and promoted the ILCLI and he was its director for many years. He was, without doubt, the driven force in the Institute for most of its existence.  He was also a founder member and director of GOGOA, a journal edited and published at ILCLI, entirely written in Basque, that publishes high quality research on language, knowledge, communication and action (See the volume dedicated to Jesus Mari in Gogoa, in 2018: https://ojs.ehu.eus/index.php/Gogoa/issue/view/1716)

Jesus Mari was always ready to discuss about philosophy, logic or politics, to give a hand and to offer council. He was kind but fierce. With an easy smile and generous conversation, he was deeply committed to the fight against injustice. He fought a quixotic battle against irrationality, obsolete institutions, conservative attitudes, and senseless bureaucracy to defend and improve research in philosophy in the Basque Country and, in particular, to defend research done in Basque.

Without his constant work, optimism and wisdom, neither ILCLI nor most of us would be where we are now. His seemingly endless energy, sharp intelligence, passion for justice, and encyclopedic knowledge were, and will continue to be, a constant source of inspiration for all of us.

We will sorely miss him.

News about his passing in Berria and Kepa Korta's homage:

https://www.berria.eus/albisteak/199818/jesus-mari-larrazabal-hil-da.htm

https://www.berria.eus/albisteak/199824/tarzanen-orroa.htm

News about his passing in Naiz:

https://www.naiz.eus/eu/info/noticia/20210629/jesus-mari-larrazabal-militante-abertzalea-eta-logikako-katedraduna-hil-da

Gogoa 18. "Politika, logika, eta maitasuna'' (Kepa Korta writes about Jesus Mari)

https://ojs.ehu.eus/index.php/Gogoa/article/view/20356