22 Facts About Peter Geach

Peter Thomas Geach was a British philosopher who was Professor of Logic at the University of Leeds.

Peter Geach was born in Chelsea, London, on 29 March 1916.

Peter Geach was the only son of George Hender Geach and his wife Eleonora Frederyka Adolfina nee Sgonina.

Peter Geach attended Llandaff Cathedral School in Cardiff and, later, Clifton College.

In 1934 Geach won a scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford, graduating in 1938 with first-class honours in literae humaniores.

Peter Geach spent a year as a Gladstone Research Student, based at St Deiniol's Library, Hawarden.

Peter Geach refused to join the British Army in the Second World War and, as a conscientious objector, was employed in the war years in timber production.

In 1951, Peter Geach was appointed to his first substantive academic post, as assistant lecturer at the University of Birmingham, going on to become Reader in Logic.

In 1966 Peter Geach resigned in protest at the University's decision to create an Institute of Contemporary Culture.

Peter Geach retired from his Leeds chair in 1981 with the title Emeritus Professor of Logic.

At various times Peter Geach held visiting professorships at the universities of Cornell, Chicago, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Warsaw.

Peter Geach was perhaps the founder of analytical Thomism, the aim of which is to synthesise Thomistic and analytic approaches.

Peter Geach was a student and an early follower of Ludwig Wittgenstein whilst at the University of Cambridge.

Peter Geach defends the Thomistic position that human beings are essentially rational animals, each one miraculously created.

Peter Geach dismissed both pragmatic and epistemic conceptions of truth, commending a version of the correspondence theory proposed by Thomas Aquinas.

Peter Geach argues that there is one reality rooted in God himself, who is the ultimate truthmaker.

Peter Geach is said to have invented the famous ethical example of the stuck potholer, when arguing against the idea that it might be right to kill a child to save its mother.

Peter Geach made a notable contribution to this debate with a paper published in 1977, which purported to derive one categorical 'ought' from purely factual premises.

Peter Geach was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1965.

Peter Geach was elected an honorary fellow of Balliol College in 1979.

Peter Geach was awarded the papal cross Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice by the Holy See in 1999 for his philosophical work.

Peter Geach died on 21 December 2013 at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge and is buried in the same grave as his wife in the Ascension Parish Burial Ground.