Archie Edward Heath (6 August 1887 – 18 May 1961) was a philosopher and philosophy professor. Alongside his contemporary

Ludwig Wittgenstein Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He is considere ...

, he significantly influenced the 'Swansea School of Philosophy'. He was President of the

Rationalist Press Association The Rationalist Association, originally the Rationalist Press Association, is an organization in the United Kingdom, founded in 1885 by a group of freethinkers who were unhappy with the increasingly political and decreasingly intellectual tenor ...

from 1949 to 1954.

Career

Heath was a teacher at

Oundle School Oundle School is a public school (English independent day and boarding school) for pupils 11–18 situated in the market town of Oundle in Northamptonshire, England. The school has been governed by the Worshipful Company of Grocers of the City ...

, and subsequently science master at

Bedales School Bedales School is a co-educational, boarding and day independent school in the village of Steep, near the market town of Petersfield in Hampshire, England. It was founded in 1893 by John Haden Badley in reaction to the limitations of conventio ...

, where one of the students he encouraged was Robin Hill, who went on to be a plant biochemist. He was later a lecturer at the universities of

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

and

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

. From 1925 to 1952, Heath was Foundation Professor of Philosophy at

University College, Swansea Swansea University ( cy, Prifysgol Abertawe) is a public university, public research university located in Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom. It was chartered as University College of Swansea in 1920, as the fourth college of the University of Wales. ...

. While there, he was an influence on both American philosopher

Rush Rhees Rush Rhees (; 19 March 1905 – 22 May 1989) was an American philosopher. He is principally known as a student, friend, and literary executor of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. With G. E. M. Anscombe he was co-editor of Wittgenstein's post ...

(who worked as an assistant professor alongside Heath) and British philosopher

Peter Winch Peter Guy Winch (14 January 1926 – 27 April 1997) was a British philosopher known for his contributions to the philosophy of social science, Wittgenstein scholarship, ethics, and the philosophy of religion. Winch is perhaps most famous f ...

D.Z. Phillips Dewi Zephaniah Phillips (24 November 1934 – 25 July 2006), known as D. Z. Phillips or simply DZ, was a Welsh philosopher. He was a leading proponent of the Wittgensteinian philosophy of religion. He had an academic career spanning five decad ...

, a prominent member of the Swansea School said of Heath, in his biography of Winch, that he, “had an eye for philosophical talent”. His previous appointments had included R. I. Aaron,

A. C. Ewing Alfred Cyril Ewing (; 11 May 1899 – 14 May 1973), usually cited as A. C. Ewing, was an English philosopher and a sympathetic critic of idealism. Biography Ewing studied at Oxford, where he gained the John Locke Lectureship and the Green Priz ...

H. B. Acton Harry Burrows Acton (2 June 1908 – 16 June 1974) was an English academic in the field of political philosophy, known for books defending the morality of capitalism, and attacking Marxism-Leninism. He in particular produced arguments on the i ...

, W. B. Gallie, Karl Britton and later also R. F. Holland A humanist, Heath was a Director of the Rationalist Press Association 1946 to 1958; its President from 1949 to 1954, and Vice President from 1955 until his death. Heath was the editor of ''Scientific Thought in the Twentieth Century'', published in 1951. This contained contributions from high profile thinkers including

A. J. Ayer Sir Alfred Jules "Freddie" Ayer (; 29 October 1910 – 27 June 1989), usually cited as A. J. Ayer, was an English philosopher known for his promotion of logical positivism, particularly in his books '' Language, Truth, and Logic'' (1936) ...

Ronald Fisher Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher (17 February 1890 – 29 July 1962) was a British polymath who was active as a mathematician, statistician, biologist, geneticist, and academic. For his work in statistics, he has been described as "a genius who a ...

Peter Medawar Sir Peter Brian Medawar (; 28 February 1915 – 2 October 1987) was a Brazilian-British biologist and writer, whose works on graft rejection and the discovery of acquired immune tolerance have been fundamental to the medical practice of tissue ...

, and Sir

Harold Spencer Jones Sir Harold Spencer Jones KBE FRS FRSE PRAS (29 March 1890 – 3 November 1960) was an English astronomer. He became renowned as an authority on positional astronomy and served as the tenth Astronomer Royal for 23 years. Although born "Jon ...

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...

, wrote Rationalist Press Association's Board of Directors congratulating them on the volume. Heath wrote the introduction to

Susan Stebbing Lizzie Susan Stebbing (2 December 1885 – 11 September 1943) was a British philosopher. She belonged to the 1930s generation of analytic philosophy, and was a founder in 1933 of the journal ''Analysis.'' Stebbing was the first woman to hold a p ...

's ''Ideals and Illusions,'' published as part of the

Thinker's Library The Thinker's Library was a series of 140 small hardcover books published between 1929 and 1951 for the Rationalist Press Association by Watts & Co., London, a company founded by the brothers Charles and John Watts. The series was launched at ...

in 1948 (first published in 1941). He described Stebbing as someone who had "scared academic persons because she not only professed rationality but also lived it. She made criticism an act of grace."

Selected publications

1931: ''Thinking Ahead: The Place of Reflection in Civilisation'' London: BBC 1936: ''How we behave: an introduction to psychology'' London: Longmans, Green 1936: ''Learn and live; the consumer's view of adult education'' London: Methuen 1951: ''Scientific thought in the twentieth century. An authoritative account of fifty year's progress in science'' London: Watts

Death

Heath's funeral was conducted at Swansea by

H. J. Blackham Harold John Blackham (31 March 1903 – 23 January 2009) was a leading British humanist philosopher, writer and educationalist. He has been described as the "progenitor of modern humanism in Britain". Biography Blackham was born in West Br ...

, who quoted Heath's words during the humanist ceremony: "The study of human beings, in all their complex doings between a sleep and a sleep, is an endless source of interest and puzzlement."

References

External links

A. E. Heath
at

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the OCL ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Heath, A. E. 1887 births 1961 deaths English philosophers English humanists Academics of Swansea University Teachers at Oundle School Teachers at Bedales School