John Niemeyer Findlay (; 25 November 1903 – 27 September 1987), usually cited as J. N. Findlay, was a South African

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

Education and career

Findlay read classics and philosophy as a boy and then at the

Transvaal University College Transvaal University College was a multi-campus public research university in South Africa which gave rise to the University of the Witwatersrand and the University of Pretoria. History In 1896 the South African School of Mines was founded in K ...

, (the forerunner of the

University of Pretoria The University of Pretoria ( af, Universiteit van Pretoria, nso, Yunibesithi ya Pretoria) is a multi-campus public university, public research university in Pretoria, the administrative and de facto capital of South Africa. The university was ...

). He then received a

Rhodes scholarship The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom. Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world' ...

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...

for the years 1924–1926. He completed Oxford's classics course (also known as " Greats") in June 1926, and stayed on for a fragment of a third year before returning to a lectureship appointment in South Africa. He later completed his doctorate in 1933 at

Graz Graz (; sl, Gradec) is the capital city of the Austrian state of Styria and second-largest city in Austria after Vienna. As of 1 January 2021, it had a population of 331,562 (294,236 of whom had principal-residence status). In 2018, the popul ...

, where he studied under

Ernst Mally Ernst Mally (; ; 11 October 1879 – 8 March 1944) was an Austrian analytic philosopher, initially affiliated with Alexius Meinong's Graz School of object theory. Mally was one of the founders of deontic logic and is mainly known for his contrib ...

. From 1927 to 1966 he was lecturer or professor of

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

at Transvaal/University of Pretoria, the

University of Otago , image_name = University of Otago Registry Building2.jpg , image_size = , caption = University clock tower , motto = la, Sapere aude , mottoeng = Dare to be wise , established = 1869; 152 years ago , type = Public research collegiate u ...

in New Zealand, Rhodes University College, Grahamstown, the

University of Natal The University of Natal was a university in the former South African province Natal which later became KwaZulu-Natal. The University of Natal no longer exists as a distinct legal entity, as it was incorporated into the University of KwaZulu-N ...

, Pietermaritzburg,

King's College, Newcastle Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a UK public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is a red brick unive ...

, and

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...

. Following retirement from his chair at London (1966) and a year at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

, Findlay continued to teach full-time for more than twenty years, first as Clark Professor of Moral Philosophy and Metaphysics at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

(1967–1972), then as University Professor and Borden Parker Bowne Professor of Philosophy (succeeding Peter Bertocci) at

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

(1972–1987). Findlay was president of the

Aristotelian Society The Aristotelian Society for the Systematic Study of Philosophy, more generally known as the Aristotelian Society, is a philosophical society in London. History Aristotelian Society was founded at a meeting on 19 April 1880, at 17 Bloomsbury Squar ...

from 1955 to 1956 and president of the

Metaphysical Society of America The Metaphysical Society of America (MSA) is a philosophical organization founded by Paul Weiss in 1950. As stated in its constitution, "The purpose of the Metaphysical Society of America is the study of reality." The society is a member of the ...

from 1974 to 1975, as well as a Fellow of both the

British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars span ...

and the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

. He was also an Editorial Advisor of the journal ''

Dionysius The name Dionysius (; el, Διονύσιος ''Dionysios'', "of Dionysus"; la, Dionysius) was common in classical and post-classical times. Etymologically it is a nominalized adjective formed with a -ios suffix from the stem Dionys- of the name ...

''. A chair for visiting professors at Boston University carries his name, as does a biennial award given for the best book in metaphysics, as judged by the Metaphysical Society of America. Findlay betrayed a great commitment to the welfare and formation of generations of students ( Leroy S. Rouner was fond of introducing him as "

Plotinus Plotinus (; grc-gre, Πλωτῖνος, ''Plōtînos''; – 270 CE) was a philosopher in the Hellenistic philosophy, Hellenistic tradition, born and raised in Roman Egypt. Plotinus is regarded by modern scholarship as the founder of Neop ...

incarnate"), teaching philosophy in one college classroom after another for sixty-two consecutive academic years. On 10 September 2012 Findlay was voted the 8th "most underappreciated philosopher active in the U.S. from roughly 1900 through mid-century" in a poll conducted among readers of Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog, finishing behind

George Santayana Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás, known in English as George Santayana (; December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952), was a Spanish and US-American philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist. Born in Spain, Santayana was raised ...

Alfred North Whitehead Alfred North Whitehead (15 February 1861 – 30 December 1947) was an English mathematician and philosopher. He is best known as the defining figure of the philosophical school known as process philosophy, which today has found applicat ...

, and

Clarence Irving Lewis Clarence Irving Lewis (April 12, 1883 – February 3, 1964), usually cited as C. I. Lewis, was an American academic philosopher. He is considered the progenitor of modern modal logic and the founder of conceptual pragmatism. First a noted logic ...

. Findlay's autobiographical essay "Confessions of Theory and Life" is printed in ''Transcendence and the Sacred'' (1981). Findlay's "My Life” is found in ''Studies in the Philosophy of J. N. Findlay'' (1985).

Work

Rational mysticism

At a time when

scientific materialism Metaphysical naturalism (also called ontological naturalism, philosophical naturalism and antisupernaturalism) is a philosophical worldview which holds that there is nothing but natural elements, principles, and relations of the kind studied by ...

positivism Positivism is an empiricist philosophical theory that holds that all genuine knowledge is either true by definition or positive—meaning ''a posteriori'' facts derived by reason and logic from sensory experience.John J. Macionis, Linda M. G ...

linguistic analysis In the study of language, description or descriptive linguistics is the work of objectively analyzing and describing how language is actually used (or how it was used in the past) by a speech community. François & Ponsonnet (2013). All acad ...

, and

ordinary language philosophy Ordinary language philosophy (OLP) is a philosophical methodology that sees traditional philosophical problems as rooted in misunderstandings philosophers develop by distorting or forgetting how words are ordinarily used to convey meaning in ...

were the core academic ideas, Findlay championed

phenomenology Phenomenology may refer to: Art * Phenomenology (architecture), based on the experience of building materials and their sensory properties Philosophy * Phenomenology (philosophy), a branch of philosophy which studies subjective experiences and a ...

, revived

Hegelianism Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends a ...

, and wrote works that were inspired by

Theosophy Theosophy is a religion established in the United States during the late 19th century. It was founded primarily by the Russian Helena Blavatsky and draws its teachings predominantly from Blavatsky's writings. Categorized by scholars of religion a ...

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...

, Plotinus, and

Idealism In philosophy, the term idealism identifies and describes metaphysical perspectives which assert that reality is indistinguishable and inseparable from perception and understanding; that reality is a mental construct closely connected to ide ...

. In his books published in the 1960s, including two series of

Gifford Lectures The Gifford Lectures () are an annual series of lectures which were established in 1887 by the will of Adam Gifford, Lord Gifford. Their purpose is to "promote and diffuse the study of natural theology in the widest sense of the term – in o ...

, Findlay developed

rational mysticism Rational mysticism, which encompasses both rationalism and mysticism, is a term used by scholars, researchers, and other intellectuals, some of whom engage in studies of how altered states of consciousness or transcendence such as trance, vision ...

. According to this

mystical Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning. It may also refer to the attainment of insight in u ...

system, "the philosophical perplexities, e.g., concerning universals and particulars, mind and body, knowledge and its objects, the knowledge of other minds,". as well as those of free will and determinism, causality and teleology, morality and justice, and the existence of temporal objects, are human experiences of deep

antinomies Antinomy (Greek ἀντί, ''antí'', "against, in opposition to", and νόμος, ''nómos'', "law") refers to a real or apparent mutual incompatibility of two laws. It is a term used in logic and epistemology, particularly in the philosophy of I ...

and absurdities about the world. Findlay's conclusion is that these necessitate the postulation of higher spheres, or "latitudes", where objects' individuality, categorical distinctiveness and material constraints are diminishing, lesser in each latitude than in the one below it. On the highest spheres, existence is evaluative and meaningful more than anything else, and Findlay identifies it with the idea of The

Absolute Absolute may refer to: Companies * Absolute Entertainment, a video game publisher * Absolute Radio, (formerly Virgin Radio), independent national radio station in the UK * Absolute Software Corporation, specializes in security and data risk manage ...

Husserl and Hegel

Findlay translated into English

Husserl , thesis1_title = Beiträge zur Variationsrechnung (Contributions to the Calculus of Variations) , thesis1_url = https://fedora.phaidra.univie.ac.at/fedora/get/o:58535/bdef:Book/view , thesis1_year = 1883 , thesis2_title ...

's '' Logische Untersuchungen'' (''Logical Investigations''), which he regarded as the author's best work, representing a developmental stage when the idea of phenomenological bracketing was not yet taken as the basis of a philosophical system, covering in fact for loose

subjectivism Subjectivism is the doctrine that "our own mental activity is the only unquestionable fact of our experience", instead of shared or communal, and that there is no external or objective truth. The success of this position is historically attribute ...

. To Findlay, the work was also one of the peaks of philosophy generally, suggesting superior alternatives both for overly minimalistic or naturalistic efforts in

ontology In metaphysics, ontology is the philosophical study of being, as well as related concepts such as existence, becoming, and reality. Ontology addresses questions like how entities are grouped into categories and which of these entities exis ...

and for Ordinary Language treatments of

consciousness Consciousness, at its simplest, is sentience and awareness of internal and external existence. However, the lack of definitions has led to millennia of analyses, explanations and debates by philosophers, theologians, linguisticians, and scien ...

and thought. Findlay also contributed final editing and wrote addenda to translations of

Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends a ...

's ''Logic'' and ''

Phenomenology of Spirit ''The Phenomenology of Spirit'' (german: Phänomenologie des Geistes) is the most widely-discussed philosophical work of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel; its German title can be translated as either ''The Phenomenology of Spirit'' or ''The Phenomen ...

''.

Wittgenstein

Findlay was first a follower, and then an outspoken critic of

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 denounced his three theories of meaning, arguing against the idea of Use, prominent in Wittgenstein's later period and in his followers, that it is insufficient for an analysis of meaning without such notions as connotation and denotation, implication, syntax and most originally, pre-existent meanings, in the mind or the external world, that determine linguistic ones, such as Husserl has evoked. Findlay credits Wittgenstein with great formal, aesthetic and literary appeal, and of directing well-deserved attention to

Semantics Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy Philosophy (f ...

and its difficulties.

Works

Books

*''Meinong's Theory of Objects'', Oxford University Press, 1933; 2nd ed. as '' Meinong's Theory of Objects and Values'', 1963 *'' Hegel: A Re-examination'', London: Allen & Unwin/New York: Macmillan, 1958 ( Muirhead Library of Philosophy) *'' Values and Intentions: A Study in Value-theory and Philosophy of Mind'', London: Allen & Unwin, 1961 (Muirhead Library of Philosophy) *'' Language, Mind and Value: Philosophical Essays'', London: Allen & Unwin/New York: Humanities Press, 1963 (Muirhead Library of Philosophy) * ''The Discipline of the Cave'', London: Allen & Unwin/New York: Humanities Press, 1966 (Muirhead Library of Philosophy) (

1964–196

*'' iarchive:transcendenceofc0000find, The Transcendence of the Cave'', London: Allen & Unwin/New York: Humanities Press, 1967 (Muirhead Library of Philosophy) (

1965–196

*'' iarchive:axiologicalethic0000find, Axiological Ethics'', London: Macmillan, 1970 *'' Ascent to the Absolute: Metaphysical Papers and Lectures'', London: Allen & Unwin/New York: Humanities Press, 1970 (Muirhead Library of Philosophy) *'' Psyche and Cerebrum'', Aquinas lecture. Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 1972 *'' Plato: The Written and Unwritten Doctrines'', London: Routledge and Kegan Paul/New York: Humanities Press, 1974 Findlay's findings herein are summarized in his
Plato's Unwritten Dialectic of the One and the Great and Small
(1983). ''The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter''. 113. (available as an

Open Access Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which research outputs are distributed online, free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 definition), or libre op ...

download). *'' Plato and Platonism'', New York: New York Times Book Co., 1976 *'' Kant and the Transcendental Object'', Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981 *'' Wittgenstein: A Critique'', London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1984

Articles/book chapters

Time: A Treatment of Some Puzzles"
, '' Australasian Journal of Psychology and Philosophy'', Vol. 19, Issue 13 (December 1941): 216–235, reprinted in '' Language, Mind and Value''
"Morality by Convention"
''

Mind The mind is the set of faculties responsible for all mental phenomena. Often the term is also identified with the phenomena themselves. These faculties include thought, imagination, memory, will, and sensation. They are responsible for various m ...

'', Vol. 33, No. 210 (1944): 142–169, reprinted in '' Language, Mind and Value''
"Can God's Existence Be Disproved?
, ''

'', Vol. 37, No. 226 (1948): 176–183; reprinted in '' Language, Mind and Value,'' and, with discussion, in Flew, A. and MacIntyre, A. C., (eds.), '' New Essays in Philosophical Theology'', New York: Macmillan, 1955
"Linguistic Approach to Psychophysics"
''

Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society The Aristotelian Society for the Systematic Study of Philosophy, more generally known as the Aristotelian Society, is a philosophical society in London. History Aristotelian Society was founded at a meeting on 19 April 1880, at 17 Bloomsbury Squa ...

'', 1949–1950, reprinted in '' Language, Mind and Value''
"The Justification of Attitudes"
''

'', Vol. 43, No. 250 (1954): 145–161, reprinted in '' Language, Mind and Value''
"I.—Some Merits of Hegelianism: The Presidential Address,"
''Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society'', Volume 56, Issue 1, 1 June 1956, pp. 1–24 * “The Structure of the Kingdom of Ends”, Henrietta Hertz Lecture, read at the British Academy, (1957)
"Use, Usage and Meaning"
''

'', Supplementary Volumes, Vol. 35. (1961), pp. 223–242
“The Systematic Unity of Value,”
in ''Akten Des XIV. Internationalen Kongresses Für Philosophie'', (1968) Reprinted in '' Ascent to the Absolute'' * “Hegel and the Philosophy of Physics”, in J. J. O’Malley et al (eds.) '' The Legacy of Hegel: Proceedings of the Marquette Hegel Symposium 1970'' (1973) * "Foreword", in Frederick G. Weiss, ed., '' Hegel: The Essential Writings'', Harper & Row/Harper Torchbooks, 1974. * "Foreword", in '' Hegel’s Logic'',

William Wallace Sir William Wallace ( gd, Uilleam Uallas, ; Norman French: ; 23 August 1305) was a Scottish knight who became one of the main leaders during the First War of Scottish Independence. Along with Andrew Moray, Wallace defeated an English army a ...

(trans.), Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1975.

Foreword
, in Hegel's ''Phenomenology of Spirit'', Oxford University Press, 1977.
Analysis of the Text
, in ''Phenomenology of Spirit'', Oxford University Press, 1977: 495–592.

*" iarchive:mythsymbolrealit0000unse/page/165/mode/1up, The Myths of Plato", ''

'', Volume II (1978): 19–34, (reprinted in Alan Olson, ed., ''Myth'', ''Symbol'', ''and Reality'''','' South Bend: University of Notre Dame Press, 1980, 165–84) *“ The Impersonality of God” in '' God, the Contemporary Discussion'',

Frederick Sontag Frederick Earl Sontag (October 2, 1924 – June 14, 2009Professor Fred Sont ...

& M. Darrol Bryant (eds) (1982)
Plato's Unwritten Dialectic of the One and the Great and Small"
(1983) ''The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter,'' 113. * “The Hegelian Treatment of Biology and Life”, in ''Hegel and the Sciences'', Robert S. Cohen and Marx W. Wartofsky (eds), (1984) * "My Life” and "My Encounters with Wittgenstein" in '' Studies in the Philosophy of J. N. Findlay'' (1985)
Findlay's Nachlass
(list of posthumous essays derived from Findlay’s lecture notes and published in ''

The Philosophical Forum ''The Philosophical Forum'' is a philosophy journal published by Wiley-Blackwell. It is currently edited by Alexus McLeod. History ''The Philosophical Forum'' was founded in 1943 as an annual philosophy journal, published by the Boston University ...

'')

Translations

* ''Logical Investigations'' (''Logische Untersuchungen''), by Edmund Husserl, with an introduction by J.N. Findlay, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. (1970)

Notes

References

*Robert S. Cohen, Richard M. Martin, and Merold Westphal (eds.), '' Studies in the Philosophy of J.N. Findlay'', Albany NY: State University of New York Press, 1985 (Includes autobiographical note by Findlay and his account of encounters with Wittgenstein). *Bockja Kim, '' Morality as the End of Philosophy: The Teleological Dialectic of the Good in J.N. Findlay's Philosophy of Religion'', University Press of America, 1999. *Michele Marchetto, ''Impersonal Ethics: John Niemeyer Findlay's Value-theory'', Avebury, 1996. *Douglas Lackey
"John Niemeyer Findlay"
''

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy The ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' (''SEP'') combines an online encyclopedia of philosophy with peer-reviewed publication of original papers in philosophy, freely accessible to Internet users. It is maintained by Stanford University. Eac ...

''.

External links

John Niemeyer Findlay 1903–1987

Alasdair MacIntyre Alasdair Chalmers MacIntyre (; born 12 January 1929) is a Scottish-American philosopher who has contributed to moral and political philosophy as well as history of philosophy and theology. MacIntyre's '' After Virtue'' (1981) is one of the most ...

, Hegel Bulletin, Volume 8, Issue 2 (number 16), Autumn/Winter 1987 , pp. 4–7. (Open Access).
John Niemeyer Findlay 1903–1987

, ''

Proceedings of the British Academy The ''Proceedings of the British Academy'' is a series of academic volumes on subjects in the humanities and social sciences. The first volume was published in 1905. Up to 1991, the volumes (appearing annually from 1927) mostly consisted of the te ...

'', Volume 111, 2001, pp. 429–512.
John Niemeyer Findlay
tribute page by Dr. Sanford L. Drob
Gifford Lecture Series – Biography – John Niemeyer Findlay
{{DEFAULTSORT:Findlay, J. N. 1903 births 1987 deaths 20th-century American philosophers Phenomenologists University of Pretoria faculty University of Pretoria alumni Academics of King's College London University of Otago faculty Rhodes University academics Academics of Newcastle University Yale University faculty Boston University faculty University of Texas at Austin faculty Presidents of the Metaphysical Society of America South African Rhodes Scholars Mystics South African people of Scottish descent Presidents of the Aristotelian Society Fellows of the British Academy