Akademik

(1919– )

English philosopher. Born in London and educated at St John's College, Oxford, Strawson taught at University College, Oxford from 1948, and became professor of metaphysics in 1968. His early work concerned logic and language, very much in the spirit of the general tradition of ordinary language philosophy of the time. To this period belongs his celebrated attack on Russell's theory of definite descriptions (see presupposition ). In 1959, his Individuals marked a return to wider metaphysical concerns. His reputation was consolidated by The Bounds of Sense (1966) which is a magnificent tour of the metaphysics of Kant, and numerous papers on epistemology, freedom, naturalism, and scepticism. In general Strawson stands for a defence of the manifest image, or common way of regarding the world. Even on issues such as that of free will he is sceptical of the power of either scientific theory or philosophical argument to motivate changes to the common conceptual scheme.