Peter Thomas Geach was the son of a Cardiff-born philosopher, George Hender Geach, who taught (the father, not the son) at Cambridge (briefly). Geach was NOT born a Catholic, but was what Geary calls a 'Catholic convert'. It may be that Geach's Catholicism was caused by his father who gave him to read, at age 13, McTaggart's book on the dogmas of religion. Geach's father was in India when Geach was born, but his mother (who was carrying Geach junior) wasn't. Strictly, Geach was CONCEIVED overseas, but Geach's mother arrived in England for Geach's birth. He was born in what is called Lower Chelsea (as opposed to Higher Chelsea). But soon moved (by his mother, a German-born daughter of Polish immigrants, Eleonora Frederyka Adolfina [Sgonina]) to Cardiff. It is said that after childhood Geach never saw his mother again. (She separated from Geach father and had a career as a poet in Oxford -- in one of her poems she refers to her marriage with Geach's father: I loved you for a year perhaps a little more And now it’s all over And I feel as though I had never known you I feel no gaps, no longing Your passage through my life was like the flight of a bird through the sky. In any case, Geach junior was educated at Llandaff cathedral school and soon sent to CLIFTON (the same public school Grice was attending). While Grice got a scholarship in Corpus Christi (Oxford), Geach became a student with Balliol. But unlike Grice's, Geach's connections with Balliol and Oxford in general seemed to have been weaker. It is said, for example, that Geach opposed "linguistic philosophy" of the type being practised in Oxford, as 'too informal' -- which while may apply to Strawson it doesn't to Grice. Yet, Geach was able to do things other than getting a philosophical (or 'humanitarian' as we prefer, Lit.Hum) at Oxford -- he obtained a BA and a MA --. He was also a Gladstone Student back in Wales -- St. Deiniol's Library in Hawarden. At the same time, he was being instructed by a Dominican priest, Fr. Frank Keohe, in Oxford. He even managed to engage in some research at "the other place", where he took courses -- labelled 'post-graduate' -- with Von Wright and Witters. An obituary of G. E. M. Anscombe (Geach's wife -- cfr. The Geachcombes) reads, rather in bad taste -- New York Times -- that while Anscombe landed in Oxbridge, Geach's affiliations were 'less prestigious' (I certainly don't share this regarding the Bridge): Birmingham -- or Brum as the locals call it) and Leeds. He was also, like Grice, a FBA. Geach's contributions to philosophy are multiple. He invented the 'donkey sentences': Every farmer who owns a donkey beats it. and later complicated the contexts: Hob thinks a witch blighted Bob's mare. Nob wonders whether she killed Cob's sow. In general, he was a source of inspiration for G. E. M. Anscombe. On one occasion, Geach expressed: "I'm a big man, so I need a big dose of so I'll take ... you know. My father really used to reason like that" This gave Anscombe the idea that Aristotle's practical syllogism had "I'll" as a consequence (cited by Mary Geach). Geach liked to engage in heterodoxies. Against R. M. Hare, and the Oxonian establishment, Geach held that 'good' is a descriptive term, not prescriptive -- "a good xylopterometre" is a xylopterometre (whatever that is) which fulfils its function. We get a grasp of what 'good' descriptively means without needing to bother what 'xylopterometre' does. He also challenged Stevenson's emotivism, arguing that "Eating people is wrong" (the reluctant cannibal) is not expressive in 'point'. In general, he was best in the company of W. V. Quine, with whom he corresponded extensively. And he would re-visit Oxford occasionally, at least once for a symposium held at Balliol on the philosophy of religion. He indeed was made an Honorary Fellow of Balliol at one point. It was apt that his second Christian (indeed Catholic) name was Thomas -- Peter Thomas Geach -- since he become a defender and formulator of what has come to be called (by Haldane) "Analytic Thomism", with Kenny -- and Dummett? He loved to 'read and marginally write' what he called -- in "International Who's Who", under 'leisurely interests', "bad old logic books", where we assume the implicature is versus the cliché "good old". Since, no book is as bad as you can't find some good thing in it (as Aristotle said, oddly at a time when books were mere parchments). It is especially ironic that Geach should concentrate on bad old logic books, since he confessed (in the non-Catholic 'use' of this trick verb) that if he became a logician (as Grice, who is described by Bartlett as "a British logician") that was because his father had him read at an early age Keynes' 1887 logic manual, which, as the etymology goes, Geach usually kept at hand -- usually the right one. Geach's writing was copious and a bibliography of his work was composed for a tribute to Geach edited by his Leeds colleague Lewis. Geach was kind enough to contribute his own "Philosophical Autobiography" which is especially candid, and forceful replies to the contributors who, while they included none of Grice's strict circle -- but Hintikka and Quine was there -- they were nontheless very notable! (Dummett, Williams, Norman Malcolm, von Wright, etc.) Geach will be missed. Cheers, Speranza --- CONTENTS TO "PHILOSOPHICAL ENCOUNTERS" Geach A PHILOSOPHICAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY QUINE/GEACH SELECTED CORRESPONDENCE GEACH HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY D. P. HENRY ABELARD AND MEDIAEVAL MEREOLOGY A. J. P. KENNY FORM, EXISTENCE, AND ESSENCE IN THOMAS AQUINAS. WOLNIEWICZ The DISCONTINUITY of Witters's Philosophy WRIGHT, G. H. Von. POSSIBILITY, PLENITUDE AND DETERMINISM PETER GEACH LOGIC J E J ALTHAM PLURAL & PLEONETETIC QUANTIFICATION ANSCOMBE-GEACH On a queer pattern of argument HINTIKKA GEACH AND THE METHODOLOGY OF the LOGICAL STUDY of Natural Language ---- Hintikka also contributed to the previous festschrift for H. P. Grice. McCAWLEY (linguist) NATURAL DEDUCTION & ordinary language discourse structure DUMMETT Does Quantification involve Identity? MUELLER Conceptual surroundings of absolute identity. C. J. F. WILLIAMS Sameness and selfhood GEACH Philosophy of religion N. MALCOLM, PHILOSOPHICAL CONFUSION AND SIN H. MEYNELL On improving Christianity GEACH REPLIES A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE WORKS OF PETER THOMAS GEACH, son of George Hender Geach, of Chelsea, educated Clifton and Balliol, Oxon, BA MA. ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html