Christopher John Fardo Williams (31 December 1930 – 25 March 1997) was a British philosopher. His areas of interest were

philosophical logic Understood in a narrow sense, philosophical logic is the area of logic that studies the application of logical methods to philosophical problems, often in the form of extended logical systems like modal logic. Some theorists conceive philosophic ...

, on which topic he did most of his original work, and

ancient philosophy This page lists some links to ancient philosophy, namely philosophical thought extending as far as early post-classical history (). Overview Genuine philosophical thought, depending upon original individual insights, arose in many cultures ro ...

, as an editor and translator.

Life

Christopher Williams was born in Walsall and was educated at

Shrewsbury School Shrewsbury School is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school in Shrewsbury. Founded in 1552 by Edward VI by royal charter, to replace the town's Saxon collegiate foundations which were disestablished in the sixteenth century, Shrewsb ...

and

Balliol College Balliol College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1263 by nobleman John I de Balliol, it has a claim to be the oldest college in Oxford and the English-speaking world. With a governing body of a master and ar ...

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

where he took a First in Greats and became a convert to Roman Catholicism, a faith to which he was openly devoted for the rest of his life. Planning to enter the

Benedictine Order The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly Christian mysticism, contemplative Christian monasticism, monastic Religious order (Catholic), order of the Catholic Church for men and f ...

, he became a novice at

Downside Abbey Downside Abbey is a Benedictine monastery in England and the senior community of the English Benedictine Congregation. Until 2019, the community had close links with Downside School, for the education of children aged 11 to 18. Both the abbey ...

, but shortly thereafter was affected by polio which left him paralysed from the waist down. Instead he became an academic philosopher, lecturing at the

University of Hull The University of Hull is a public research university in Kingston upon Hull, a city in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It was founded in 1927 as University College Hull. The main university campus is located in Hull and is home to the Hu ...

before moving to Bristol, where he taught in the philosophy department as lecturer, Reader and Professor until his retirement in 1996. Despite his disability, Williams commuted between Bristol and his home in

Midsomer Norton Midsomer Norton is a town near the Mendip Hills in Bath and North East Somerset, England, south-west of Bath, Somerset, Bath, north-east of Wells, Somerset, Wells, north-west of Frome, west of Trowbridge and south-east of Bristol. It has ...

and attended many philosophical conferences around the world. He also edited the philosophy journal, ''

Analysis Analysis (: analyses) is the process of breaking a complex topic or substance into smaller parts in order to gain a better understanding of it. The technique has been applied in the study of mathematics and logic since before Aristotle (38 ...

''.

Thought

Believing that such fundamental concepts as existence, truth and identity had been widely misunderstood by the philosophical tradition, and obfuscated especially by

metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the basic structure of reality. It is traditionally seen as the study of mind-independent features of the world, but some theorists view it as an inquiry into the conceptual framework of ...

, Williams attempted to show that they could be elucidated by a close analysis of the way those and related terms are actually used. Williams was not, however, an

ordinary language Ordinary language philosophy (OLP) is a philosophical methodology that sees traditional philosophical problems as rooted in misunderstandings philosophers develop by distorting or forgetting how words are ordinarily used to convey meaning in ...

philosopher; rather, he produced painstaking analyses of the concepts couched in the terms of symbolic logic. In this approach, founded in the logical work of

Gottlob Frege Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege (; ; 8 November 1848 – 26 July 1925) was a German philosopher, logician, and mathematician. He was a mathematics professor at the University of Jena, and is understood by many to be the father of analytic philos ...

, he was most immediately influenced by

Arthur Prior Arthur Norman Prior (4 December 1914 – 6 October 1969), usually cited as A. N. Prior, was a New Zealand–born logician and philosopher. Prior (1957) founded tense logic, now also known as temporal logic, and made important contribution ...

and by his friend and fellow

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

philosopher

Peter Geach Peter Thomas Geach (29 March 1916 – 21 December 2013) was a British philosopher who was Professor of Logic at the University of Leeds. His areas of interest were philosophical logic, ethics, history of philosophy, philosophy of religion and ...

. He summarized his views in a trilogy of books, ''What is Truth?'' (1976), ''What is Existence?'' (1981) and ''What is Identity?'' (1989), and produced a more accessible overview, with less emphasis on symbolic logic, in a single volume, ''Being, Truth and Identity'' (1992).

Works

Books (authored) *'' What is Truth?'' (1976) *''What is Existence?'' (1981) *'' What is Identity?'' (1989) *''Being, Truth and Identity'' (1992). Select papers and book chapters * "On Sameness and Selfhood", in Harry A. Lewis (ed.), '' Peter Geach: Philosophical Encounters'' (1991). Other works * (Translation. with notes),

Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

, '' De generatione et corruptione'' (1982). * (Edited. with translation and notes),

Paul of Venice Paul of Venice (or Paulus Venetus; 1369–1429) was a Catholic philosopher, theologian, logician and metaphysician of the Order of Saint Augustine. Life Paul was born, according to the chroniclers of his order, at Udine, about 1369 and died at ...

, ''Logica Magna'' '' t 1, fasc. 8', ''Tractatus de necessitate et contingentia futurorum'' (1991) * (Translation)

John Philoponus John Philoponus ( Greek: ; , ''Ioánnis o Philóponos''; c. 490 – c. 570), also known as John the Grammarian or John of Alexandria, was a Coptic Miaphysite philologist, Aristotelian commentator and Christian theologian from Alexandria, Byza ...

, ''On Aristotle's "On Coming-to-Be and Perishing" 1.1-5,'' and ''On Aristotle's "On Coming-to-Be and Perishing" 1.6-2.4'' (1999)

Life

Thought

Works

References

Further reading