[FOM] Who was Luc Jardie?

[Charles Parsons]

At 11:51 AM +0300 6/6/07, Juliette Kennedy wrote:
>Who was Luc Jardie?
>
>Jean-Pierre Melville's 1969 film about members of the French Resistance
>called "Army of Shadows" (L'armee des ombres) features a reclusive,
>aristocratic philosopher named Luc Jardie. The character has written 5 books:
>
>"Methode Axiomatique et Formalisme," "Transfini et Continu," "Essai sur
>le Probleme du Fondement de Mathematiques," "Sur le Logique et la Theorie
>de la Science" and finally "Remarques sur la Formation de la Theorie
>Abstraite des Ensembles." (Sorry I cannot supply proper accents on this
>keyboard.)
>
>The film is based on the novel of the same name by Joseph Kessel, but
>draws heavily on Melville's own experience as a Resistance member.
>
>Question: did any logician-set theorist play a role in
>the French Resistance? The titles of the books point to their
>being written by a Bourbaki member - didn't
>the Bourbaki book on set theory come out in the 60's?
>
>(Another suggestion
>which was made is that during the 1960s Melville crossed paths with some
>logician of the formalist stripe at, say, La Coupole.)
>
>The film came out in the U.S. just now; it was hardly seen in France when
>it first came out, but it is now considered one of Melville's greatest
>films.
>
>Greetings,
>
>Juliette Kennedy

The obvious suggestion would be Jean Cavaill`es, who died at Nazi 
hands in 1944. I don't have access now to any of his writings, but 
some of the titles you mention seem to fit him, if my memory is 
anywhere near right.

There is a book about his philosophy by Hourya Sinaceur, published 
ten years or so ago.

Charles Parsons