Yehuda Rav was born in 1930, in Vienna, Austria and grew up in Israel. He came in 1951 to the US for his undergraduate and graduate studies at Columbia University, majoring in mathematics and wrote a thesis in biological automata theory. He taught at Columbia University and Hofstra University before emigrating to France in 1967. From that date until his retirement in 1995, he was on the faculty of the University of Paris, Orsay Center. He has published numerous articles in logic, set theory, philosophy of mathematics, and history of cybernetics, as well as more than 200 reviews in Mathematical Reviews. He is still active in scholarly work, with a special interest in the neurocognitive sciences and evolutionary epistemology.


Selected publications
 
 On the representation of rational numbers as a fixed sum of unit fractions.
 J. Reine Angew. Math. 222 (1966): 207-213.
 
 The ultrafilter principle implies that the projective limit of compact Haudorf 
 spaces is nonempty. Bull. Acad. Polon. Sci. (Série Math.) 24 (1976): 559-562.
 
Variants of Rado's selection lemma and their applications. Math. Nachr. 79 (1977): 145-165.
 
Subdirect decomposition of rings and the axiom of choice. Arch. Math. 51 (1988): 
125-127.
 
Philosophical problems of mathematics in the light of evolutionary epistemology.
Philosophica  43 (1989): 49-78.
Reprinted in: 
      (a) Restivo, S., J. P. Van Bendegem and R. Fischer, (eds.) (1993). Math Worlds: Philosophical and Social Studies of Mathematics and Mathematics Education. SUNY Series in Science, Technology and Society. Albany, NY, State University of New York Press: 80-109.
     (b) Hersh, R., (ed.) (2006). 18 Unconventional Essays on the Nature of Mathematics. New York, Springer: 71-96.
 
Lattice theoretical equivalents of the ultrafilter principle.  Z. Math. Logik Grundl. Mathematik  35 (1989): 131-136.
 
Semiprime ideals in general lattices. J. Pure Applied Algebra 56 (1989): 105-118.
 
On the interplay between logic and philosophy: A historical perspective. Theoría (Segunda Época) 8:19 (1993): 1-21.
 
 Die mathematische Tätigkeit aus der Perspektive der EE, in R. Riedl and M. Delpos, (eds.) (1996), Die Evolutionäre Erkenntnistheorie (EE) im Spiegel der Wissenschaften. Vienna, WUV-Universitätsverlag : 22-35.
 
 Logique et philosophie, in Encyclopédie Philosophique Universelle 5 (1998) Paris, PUF: 149-172.
 
Why do we prove theorems? Philosophia Mathematica (3) 7 (1999): 5-41.
 
Das Problem der Existenz mathematischer Objekte, in R. Born and O.Neumaier, (eds.) (2001), Philosophie — Wissenschaft — Wirtschaft.  (Akten des VI. Kongress der Österreichischen Gesellschaft für Philosophie, Linz, 1. – 4. Juni 2000). Vienna, öbv-et-hpt: 191-212.
 
Perspective on the history of the cybernetics movement: The path to current research through the contributions of Norbert Wiener, Warren McCulloch, and John von Neumann. Cybernetics and System 33(8) (2002): 779-804.
 
Reflections on the proliferous growth of mathematical concepts and tools: Some case histories from mathematicians' workshops, in C. Cellucci and D. Gilles, (eds.) (2005), Mathematical Reasoning and Heuristics, King's College Publications, London: 49-69.
 
A critique of a formalist-mechanist version of the justification of arguments in mathematicians’ proof practices. Philosophia Mathematica (3) 15 (2007): 291-320.
 
The axiomatic method in theory and in practice. Logique et Analyse  51, no.202, (2008): 125-148.