Frits Staal ( November 3 1930 - Chiang Mai February 19 2012 ) was a Dutch philosopher and linguist. He was a son of the famous architect Jan Frederik Staal (1879-1940). Steel studied mathematics, physics and philosophy at the City University of Amsterdam , and continued his studies in Indian philosophy and Sanskrit at Madras (promotion) and Benares . Steel was professor of General and Comparative Philosophy in Amsterdam from 1962 to 1967 . In that year he published his controversial article "Meaningful and meaningless philosophy" in the journal of the Guide . He suggested herein that only verifiable statements provide meaningful philosophy. Statements like "Das Nichts nichtet" ( Heidegger ) to examine in any way or to verify and therefore meaningless. Are expressed in the article views on