Grice, Prior, and Geach

Speranza

Thanks to the good offices of Gilbert Ryle, who had met Prior in New Zealand in 1954, Prior spent the year 1956 on leave at the University of Oxford, where he gave the John Locke lectures in philosophy.

These were subsequently published as Time and Modality (1957).

is a seminal contribution to the study of tense logic and the metaphysics of time, in which Prior championed the A-theorist view that the temporal modalities past, present and future are basic ontological categories of fundamental importance for our understanding of time and the world.

During his time at Oxford, Prior met Peter Thomas Geach and William Kneale -- and should have met Herbert Paul Grice --, influenced John Lemmon, and corresponded with the adolescent Saul Kripke.

Logic in the United Kingdom was then in a rather low state, and Prior's enthusiasm is believed to have contributed materially to its revival.

From 1959 to 1966, he was Professor of Philosophy at the University of Manchester, having taught Osmund Lewry.

From 1966 until his death on Oct. 6, 1969, Prior was Fellow and Tutor in philosophy at Balliol College, Oxford.

His students include Max Cresswell, Kit Fine, and Robert Bull.


WORKS BY PRIOR:


1971. Objects of Thought.
Edited by Peter Thomas Geach and A. J. P. Kenny. Oxford University Press.


1976. The Doctrine of Propositions and Terms.
Edited by Peter Thomas Geach and A. J. P. Kenny. London: Duckworth.

1976. Papers in Logic and Ethics.
Edited by Peter Thomas Geach and A. J. P. Kenny. London: Duckworth