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Sir Peter Frederick Strawson (; 23 November 1919 – 13 February 2006) was an English philosopher. He was the
Waynflete Professor of Metaphysical Philosophy The Waynflete Professorships are four professorial fellowships at the University of Oxford endowed by Magdalen College and named in honour of the college founder William of Waynflete, who had a great interest in science. These professorships are s ...
at the
University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...
(
Magdalen College Magdalen College (, ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete. Today, it is the fourth wealthiest college, with a financial endowment of £332.1 million as of 2019 and one of the s ...
) from 1968 to 1987. Before that, he was appointed as a college lecturer at
University College, Oxford University College (in full The College of the Great Hall of the University of Oxford, colloquially referred to as "Univ") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It has a claim to being the oldest college of the unive ...
, in 1947, and became a tutorial fellow the following year, until 1968. On his retirement in 1987, he returned to the college and continued working there until shortly before his death. His portrait was painted by the artists Muli Tang and Daphne Todd. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy says that Strawson "exerted a considerable influence on philosophy, both during his lifetime and, indeed, since his death".


Early years

Strawson was born in Ealing, west London, and brought up in Finchley, north London, by his parents, both of whom were teachers. He was educated at
Christ's College, Finchley Christ's College is a secondary school with academy status in East Finchley, London, United Kingdom. It falls under the London Borough of Barnet Local Education Authority for admissions. Since September 2018, Christ’s College Finchley has off ...
, followed by St John's College, Oxford, where he read Philosophy, Politics and Economics.


Philosophical work

Strawson first became well known with his article "On Referring" (1950), a criticism of
Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, ...
's
theory of descriptions The theory of descriptions is the philosopher Bertrand Russell's most significant contribution to the philosophy of language. It is also known as Russell's theory of descriptions (commonly abbreviated as RTD). In short, Russell argued that the ...
(see also
Definite description In formal semantics and philosophy of language, a definite description is a denoting phrase in the form of "the X" where X is a noun-phrase or a singular common noun. The definite description is ''proper'' if X applies to a unique individual or o ...
s) that Russell explained in the famous " On Denoting" article (1905). In philosophical methodology, there are (at least) two important and interrelated features of Strawson's work that are worthy of note. The first is the project of a 'descriptive' metaphysics, and the second is his notion of a shared conceptual scheme, composed of concepts operated in everyday life. In his book ''Individuals'' (1959), Strawson attempts to give a description of various concepts that form an interconnected web, representing (part of) our common, shared, human conceptual scheme. In particular, he examines our conceptions of basic
particular In metaphysics, particulars or individuals are usually contrasted with universals. Universals concern features that can be exemplified by various different particulars. Particulars are often seen as concrete, spatiotemporal entities as opposed to a ...
s, and how they are variously brought under general spatio-temporal concepts. What makes this a metaphysical project is that it exhibits, in fine detail, the structural features of our thought about the world, and thus precisely delimits how we, humans, think about reality. Strawson was made a Fellow of the
British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars spa ...
in 1960 and Foreign Honorary Member of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...
in 1971. He was president of the Aristotelian Society from 1969 to 1970. He was knighted, in 1977, for services to philosophy.


Personal life

After serving as a captain in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers during
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, Strawson married Ann Martin in 1945. They had four children, including the philosopher
Galen Strawson Galen John Strawson (born 1952) is a British analytic philosopher and literary critic who works primarily on philosophy of mind, metaphysics (including free will, panpsychism, the mind-body problem, and the self), John Locke, David Hume, ...
. P.F. Strawson lived in Oxford all his adult life and died in hospital on 13 February 2006 after a short illness. He was elder brother to Major General John Strawson. The obituary in ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' noted that "Oxford was the world capital of philosophy between 1950 and 1970, and American academics flocked there, rather than the traffic going the other way. That golden age had no greater philosopher than Sir Peter Strawson."''The Guardian'' – Obituary
In its obituary, ''The Times'' of London described him as a "philosopher of matchless range who made incisive, influential contributions to problems of language and metaphysics." The author went on to say:


Partial bibliography


Books

*
Introduction to Logical Theory
'. London: Methuen, 1952. ** Japanese translation by S. Tsunetoshi, et al. (Kyoto: Houritsu Bunkasya, 1994) * '' Individuals: An Essay in Descriptive Metaphysics''. London: Methuen, 1959. ** German translation by F. Scholz (Stuttgart: Reclam, 1972) ** French translation by A. Shalom and P. Drong (Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1973) ** Italian translation by E. Bencivenga (Milan: Feltrinelli, 1978) ** Japanese translation by H. Nakamura (Tokyo: Misuzu Shobo, 1978) ** Polish translation by B. Chwedenczuk (Warsaw: Wydawniczy Pax, 1980) ** Spanish translation by A. Suarez and L. Villanueva (Madrid: Taurus, 1989) **Brazilian Portuguese translation by P. J. Smith (São Paulo: Editora Unesp, 2019) * '' The Bounds of Sense: An Essay on Kant's Critique of Pure Reason''. London: Methuen, 1966. ** Spanish translation by C. Luis Andre (Madrid: Revista de Occidente, 1975) ** German translation by E. Lange (Hain, 1981) ** Italian translation by M. Palumbo (Roma-Bari: Laterza, 1985) ** Japanese translation by T. Kumagai, et al. (Tokyo: Keiso Shobo, 1987) * '' Logico-Linguistic Papers''. London: Methuen, 1971 * '' Freedom and Resentment and other Essays''. London: Methuen, 1974 * ''Subject and Predicate in Logic and Grammar''. London: Methuen, 1974 * ''Skepticism and Naturalism: Some Varieties''. New York: Columbia University Press, 1985. * ''Analysis and Metaphysics: An Introduction to Philosophy''. Oxford:
Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
, 1992. ** Estonian translation by T. Hallap (Tartu: University of Tartu Press, 2016) * ''Entity and Identity''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997. * '' Philosophical Writings''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.


Articles

* "Necessary Propositions and Entailment Statements" (''Mind'', 1948) * "Truth" (''Analysis'', 1949) * "Ethical Intuitionism" (''Philosophy'', 1949) * "Truth" (''
Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society The Aristotelian Society for the Systematic Study of Philosophy, more generally known as the Aristotelian Society, is a philosophical society in London. History Aristotelian Society was founded at a meeting on 19 April 1880, at 17 Bloomsbury Squa ...
'' suppl. vol. xxiv, 1950) * "On Referring" ('' Mind'', 1950) * "Particular and General" (''
Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society The Aristotelian Society for the Systematic Study of Philosophy, more generally known as the Aristotelian Society, is a philosophical society in London. History Aristotelian Society was founded at a meeting on 19 April 1880, at 17 Bloomsbury Squa ...
'', 1953 * "Wittgenstein's ''Philosophical Investigations'' (''Mind'', vol. 63, 1954) * "A Logician's Landscape" (''Philosophy'', Vol. 30, 1955) * "Construction and Analysis" in A.J. Ayer et al., ''The Revolution in Philosophy''. London: Macmillan, 1956 * "Singular Terms, Ontology and Identity" (''Mind'', Vol. 65, 1956) *
In Defence of a Dogma
with H. P. Grice ('' Philosophical Review'', 1956) * "Logical Subjects and Physical Objects" ('' Philosophy and Phenomenological Research'', 1957) * "Propositions, Concepts and Logical Truths" (''Philosophical Quarterly'', Vol. 7, 1957) * "Proper Names" (''Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society'', Supp. Vol. 31, 1957) * "On Justifying Induction" (''Philosophical Studies'', 1958) * "The Post-Linguistic Thaw" (''Times Literary Supplement'', 1960) *
Freedom and Resentment
(''Proceedings of the British Academy'', Vol. 48, 1960) * "Singular Terms and Predication" ('' Journal of Philosophy'', 1961) * "Perception and Identification" (''Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society'', Supp. Vol. 35, 1961) * "Carnap's Views on Constructed Systems v. Natural Languages in Analytical Philosophy" in ''The Philosophy of Rudolf Carnap'', ed. P.A. Schilpp (La Salle Ill.: Open Court, 1963) * " A Problem about Truth: A reply to Mr. Warnock" in ''Truth'', ed. G. Pitcher, Englewood Cliffs (N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1964) * "Truth: A Reconsideration of Austin's Views" (''Philosophical Quarterly'', Vol. 15, 1965) * "Self, Mind and Body" (''Common Factor'', Vol. 4, 1966) * "Is Existence Never A Predicate" (''Critica'', Vol. 1, 1967) * "Bennett on Kant's Analytic" (''Philosophical Review'', Vol. 77, 1968) * "Meaning and Truth" (''Proceedings of the British Academy'', Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969) * "Imagination and Perception" in ''Experience and Theory'', ed. L. Foster and J.W. Swanson (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1970) * "Categories" in ''Ryle: A Collection of Critical essays'', ed. O.P. Wood and G. Pitcher, (New York: Doubleday, 1970) * "The Asymmetry of Subjects and Predicates" in ''Language, Belief and Metaphysics'', ed. H.E. Kiefer and M.K. Munitz (New York: State of University of New York Press, 1970) * "Self-Reference, Contradiction and Content-Parasitic Predicates" (''Indian review of Philosophy'', 1972) * "Different Conceptions of Analytical Philosophy" (''Tijdschrift voor Filosofie'', 1973) * "Austin and 'Locutionary Meaning'" in ''Essays on J.L. Austin'', ed. I Berlin (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973) * "On Understanding the Structure of One's Language" in ''Freedom and Resentment and Other Essays'' * "Positions for Quantifiers" in ''semantics and Philosophy'', ed. M.K. Munitz and P.K. Unger (New York: New York University Press, 1974) * "Does Knowledge Have Foundations?" (''Conocimiento y Creencia'', 1974) * "Semantics, Logic and Ontology" (''Neue Häfte für Philosophie'', 1975) * "Knowledge and Truth" (''Indian Philosophical Quarterly'', Vol. 3, No. 3, 1976) * "Entity and Identity" in ''Contemporary British Philosophy Fourth Series'', ed. H.D. Lewis (London: Allen and Unwin, 1976) * "Scruton and Wright on Anti-Realism" (''Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society'', Vol. 77, 1976) * "May Bes and Might Have Beens" in ''Meaning and Use'', ed. A. Margalit (London: Reidel, 1979) * "Perception and its Objects" in ''Perception and Identity: Essays Presented to A.J. Ayer'', ed. G.F. Macdonald (London: Macmillan, 1979) * "Universals" ('' Midwest Studies in Philosophy'', 1979) * "Belief, Reference and Quantification" (''Monist'', 1980) * "P.F. Strawson Replies" in ''Philosophical Subjects Presented to P.F. Strawson'', ed. Zak Van Straaten (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980) * "Comments and Reples" (''Philosophia'', Vol. 10, 1981) * "Logical Form and Logical Constants" in ''Logical Form, Predication and Ontology'', ed. P.K. Sen (India: Macmillan, 1982) * "Liberty and Necessity" in ''Spinoza, His Thought & Work'', ed. Nathan Rotenstreich and Norma Schneider (Jerusalem: The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 1983) * "Causation and Explanation" in ''Essays on Davidson'', ed. Bruce Vermazen and J. Hintikka (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985) * "Direct Singular Reference: Intended Reference and Actual Reference" in ''Wo steht die Analytische Philosophie Heute?'', 1986 * "Reference and its Roots" in ''The Philosophy of W.V. Quine''. ed L.E. Hahn and P.A. Schilpp (La Salle Ill.: Open Court, 1986) * "Kant's Paralogisms: Self Consciousness and the 'Outside Observer'" in ''Theorie der Subjektivität'', ed. K. Cramer, F. Fulda, R.-P. Hortsmann, U. Poshast (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1987) * "Concepts and Properties, or Predication and Copulation" (''Philosophical Quarterly'', Vol. 37, 1987) * "Kant's New Foundations of Metaphysics" in ''Metaphysik nach Kant'', ed.
Dieter Henrich Dieter Henrich (5 January 1927 – 17 December 2022) was a German philosopher. A contemporary thinker in the tradition of German idealism, Henrich is considered "one of the most respected and frequently cited philosophers in Germany today", who ...
and R.-P. Horstmann (Stuttgart: Klett Cotta, 1988) * "Ma Philosophie: son développement, son thème central et sa nature générale" (''Revue de thėologie et de philosophie'', Vol. 120, 1988) * "Sensibility, Understanding and the Doctrine of Synthesis: Comments on D. Henrich and P. Guyer" in ''Kant's Transcendental Deductions'', ed. E. Forster (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1989) * "Two Conceptions of Philosophy" in ''Perspectives on Quine'', ed. Robert Barrett and Roger Gibson (Oxford: Blackwell: 1990) * "The Incoherence of Empiricism" (''Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society'', Supp. Vol. 66, 1992) * "Comments on Some Aspects of Peter Unger's ''Identity, Consciousness and Value'' (''Philosophy and Phenomenological Research'', Vol. 42, 1992) * "Echoes of Kant" (''Times Literary Supplement'', 1992, "The State of Philosophy") * "Replies" in ''Ensayos sobre Strawson'', ed. Carlos E. Carosi (Montevideo: Universidad de la Republica, 1992) * "Knowing From Words" in ''Knowing From Words'', ed. B. K. Matilal and A. Chakrabati (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1992) * "My Philosophy" and "Replies" to critics in ''The Philosophy of P.F. Strawson'', ed. P.K. Sen and R.K. Verma (New Delhi: Indian Council of Philosophical Research, 1994) * "Individuals" in ''Philosophical Problems Today'', Vol. 1, ed. G. Floistad (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1994) * "The Problem of Realism and the A Priori" in ''Kant and Contemporary Epistemology'', ed. Paolo Parrini (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1994) * "Introduction", "Kant on Substance" and "Meaning and Context" in ''Entity and Identity'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997)


Notes


References

* ''Philosophical Subjects: Essays Presented to P. F. Strawson'', ed. Zak Van Straaten (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980) * ''Leibniz and Strawson: A New Essay in Descriptive Metaphysics'', Clifford Brown (Munich: Philosophia Verlag, 1990) * ''Ensayos sobre Strawson'', ed. Carlos E. Carosi (Montevideo: Universidad de la Republica, 1992) * ''The Philosophy of P. F. Strawson'', ed. Pranab Kumar Sen and Roop Rekha Verma (Indian Council of Philosophical Research, 1995) * ''The Philosophy of P. F. Strawson'', Lewis E. Hahn, ed. (Open Court, 1998) * ''Theories of Truth'', Richard Kirkham (
MIT Press The MIT Press is a university press affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts (United States). It was established in 1962. History The MIT Press traces its origins back to 1926 when MIT publish ...
, 1992). (Chapter 10 contains a detailed discussion of Strawson's performative theory of truth.) * Strawson & Kant: The Bounds of Sense. GELAIN, Itamar Luís & CONTE, Jaimir (Org.) Pelotas: NEPFIL (On-line), 2016. * Ensaios sobre a filosofia de Strawson. CONTE, Jaimir & GELAIN, Itamar Luís (Org.). Florianópolis: Editora UFSC, 2015. * ''Strawson and Kant'', ed. Hans-Johann Glock (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003) * Sir Peter Strawson (1919–2006), ''Univ Newsletter'', Issue 23, page 4, Hilary 2006. * ''Peter Strawson'', Clifford Brown (Acumen Publishing, 2006) *
Free Will and Reactive Attitudes: Perspectives on P. F. Strawson's 'Freedom and Resentment'
'. edited by Micheal McKenna and Paul Russell, (2016)


External links

* Snowdon, Pau
"Strawson, Sir Peter Frederick (1919–2006), philosopher".
''
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...
'' (19 May 2011) rchived* Snowdon, Paul
"Strawson, Peter Frederick, 1919-2006"
''Proceedings of the British Academy, V. 150 Biographical Memoirs of Fellows, VI''. pp. 221-244 (2008)

- obituary for ''
The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...
'' by Alan Ryan
Peter Frederick Strawson (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)Snapshot: P. F. Strawson
2019 essay by Anil Gomes for '' The Philosophers' Magazine'' * P.F. Strawson
The First Edition of "Freedom and Resentment"
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Waynflete Professors of Metaphysical Philosophy