Peter Geach facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Peter Geach
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Geach in 1990
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Peter Thomas Geach
29 March 1916 Chelsea, London, England
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| Died | 21 December 2013 (aged 97) Cambridge, England
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| Alma mater | Balliol College, Oxford |
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| Era | 20th-century philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | Analytical Thomism |
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Peter Thomas Geach (born March 29, 1916 – died December 21, 2013) was an English philosopher. He was a professor of Logic at the University of Leeds. He was very interested in how we think, what is right and wrong, the history of ideas, and the philosophy of religion. He also explored the idea of identity.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Peter Geach was born in Chelsea, London, England, on March 29, 1916. He was the only son of George Hender Geach and Eleonora Sgonina. His father worked as a philosophy professor in India.
When Peter was very young, his parents separated. He lived with his grandparents in Cardiff until he was four. After that, he was cared for by a guardian until his father returned to Britain. He went to Llandaff Cathedral School and later Clifton College.
In 1934, Peter won a special scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford. He graduated in 1938 with top honors in a subject called literae humaniores, which combines classical studies, philosophy, and history. In the same year, he joined the Catholic Church.
Academic Career
After college, Peter Geach spent a year doing research. When World War II started, he chose not to join the British Army because of his beliefs. Instead, he worked in timber production during the war years.
After the war ended in 1945, he continued his research at Cambridge. In 1951, he became an assistant lecturer at the University of Birmingham, where he later became a "Reader" in Logic. A "Reader" is a senior academic position, like a professor.
In 1966, Geach left the University of Birmingham. He disagreed with their decision to create a new "Institute of Contemporary Culture," saying he preferred "Logic" over "Pop Art." That same year, he became a Professor of Logic at the University of Leeds. He retired from Leeds in 1981 and was given the title of Emeritus Professor of Logic, which means he kept his title after retirement.
Peter Geach also taught as a visiting professor at several universities in other countries, including Cornell, Chicago, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Warsaw.
Philosophical Ideas
Peter Geach wrote important books like Mental Acts and Reference and Generality. In Reference and Generality, he talked about how words refer to things, comparing modern ideas with older ones. His Catholic faith was a big part of his philosophical thinking.
He is seen as a founder of a way of thinking called analytical Thomism. This approach tries to combine the ideas of the ancient philosopher Thomas Aquinas with modern analytical philosophy. Geach was also a student and follower of the famous philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein when he was at Cambridge.
Geach believed that humans are special because we can reason and think logically. He thought that each person is created in a unique way. He didn't agree with ideas that suggested reason wasn't essential to being human. He also believed that animals could not truly use language, only connect signs with actions.
He had strong ideas about truth. He supported the correspondence theory of truth, which says that something is true if it matches reality. He believed that God is the ultimate source of truth. Geach also thought that there are no things that "don't exist" and that the meaning of a word doesn't depend on whether the sentence it's in is true.
Honors and Awards
Peter Geach received many honors for his work. In 1965, he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA), which is a very respected group for experts in the humanities and social sciences. He also became an honorary fellow of Balliol College in 1979. In 1999, the Holy See (the Vatican) gave him a special award called Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice for his philosophical contributions.
Family Life
Peter Geach was married to another famous philosopher, Elizabeth Anscombe. They both converted to Catholicism and got married in 1941. They had seven children together.
They even worked together on a book called Three Philosophers in 1961. Elizabeth wrote about Aristotle, and Peter wrote about Aquinas and Gottlob Frege. For many years, they were important figures in a group of Catholic philosophers who met annually.
Later Life and Death
Peter Geach passed away on December 21, 2013, in Cambridge, England. He is buried in the same grave as his wife.
Works
- Descartes: Philosophical Writings (with G.E.M. Anscombe) (1954)
- "Good and Evil," Analysis (1956)
- Mental Acts: Their Content and Their Objects, 1957/1997
- Three Philosophers: Aristotle; Aquinas; Frege (with G.E.M. Anscombe), 1961
- Reference and Generality: An Examination of Some Medieval and Modern Theories, 1962
- "EUTHYPHRO": An Analysis and Commentary, July, 1966
- History of the Corruptions of Logic, inaugural lecture, University of Leeds, 1968
- God and the Soul, 1969/2001
- "A Program for Syntax" (1970). Synthèse 22:3-17.
- Logic Matters, 1972
- Reason and Argument, 1976
- Providence and Evil: The Stanton Lectures 1971-2, 1977
- The Virtues: The Stanton Lectures 1973-4, 1977
- Truth, Love, and Immortality: An Introduction to McTaggart's Philosophy, 1979
- (edited) Wittgenstein's Lectures on Philosophical Psychology, 1946–47: Notes by P.T. Geach, K.J. Shah, and A.C. Jackson, 1989
- Logic and Ethics (edited by Jacek Holowka), 1990
- Truth and Hope: The Furst Franz Josef und Furstin Gina Lectures Delivered at the International Academy of Philosophy in the Principality of Liechtenstein, 1998 (ISBN: 0-268-04215-2)
See Also
In Spanish: Peter Geach para niños
