David Pears
David Pears | |
|---|---|
.jpg?lang=en) Pears in 1972 | |
| Born | August 8, 1921 Bedfont, Middlesex |
| Died | July 1, 2009 (aged 87) Oxford |
| Alma mater | Balliol College, Oxford |
| Occupation | Philosopher |
| Notable work | Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1961) translation with Brian McGuinness |
David Francis Pears, FBA (8 August 1921 – 1 July 2009) was a British philosopher renowned for his work on Ludwig Wittgenstein.[1][2] Along with Brian McGuinness, he published what became the standard English translation of the Tractatus in 1961.[3]
Life
[edit]David Francis Pears was born on 8 August 1921 at Bedfont, Middlesex. He was the second of four sons born to Robert Pears (1891–1986) and Gladys Eveline, née Meyers (1892–1977). His father was a descendant of Andrew Pears the creator of Pears soap, and Robert's family were amongst those who benefitted from the sale of the company to the Lever Brothers.[4][3]
Pears attended Westminster school with Richard Wollheim and Patrick Gardiner who became fellow philosophers and lifelong friends.[1][5] At Westminster he had specialized in classics and it was as a classical scholar that he went to Balliol College, Oxford in 1939. He obtained a first in classical moderations in 1940 but his academic career was interrupted by World War II.[3]
He served in the Royal Artillery, but was seriously injured in a practice gas attack. As a result Pears was not sent to North Africa with the rest of his regiment. Peacocke reports that "Casualties there were so heavy that, [Pears] said, this accident may have saved his life."[4]
Another accident would help determine just what he would do with it. After leaving the army, he returned to Balliol College and achieved a first in literae humaniores in 1947.[3] The master of Balliol, Sandie Lindsay, thought he ought try for an assistant lectureship in Latin at Glasgow, but Pears was unsure what he ought do next.[6]
Jumping, to escape a brawl, out of a window of the Randolph Hotel, Oxford that, unexpectedly, opened on to a well to the basement, Pears landed up in hospital with a broken leg, and a copy of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus.[7] The latter reportedly being grabbed from a friend as he was being carried to the ambulance.[1][2][8] Pears left hospital fascinated by Wittgenstein's work and certain that philosophy was his true interest.[3]
On this account he started the Oxford B.Phil but his appointment as research lecturer at Christ Church, Oxford in 1948 meant he did not have to complete it.[7] Pears took up a fellowship in philosophy at Corpus Christi College, Oxford from 1950 to 1960 then returned to Christ Church in 1960 as a tutor in philosophy. There he became reader in philosophy in 1972 and professor of philosophy in 1985, retiring in 1988 as a professor emeritus.[9]
Works
[edit]Books authored
[edit]- Bertrand Russell and the British Tradition in Philosophy 1967
- What is Knowledge? 1971
- Ludwig Wittgenstein. Viking Press 1970.
- Questions in the Philosophy of Mind 1975
- Motivated Irrationality. Oxford: Clarendon Press 1984.[10]
- The False Prison: A Study of the Development of Wittgenstein's Philosophy. 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press 1987/1988.[11][12]
- Hume's System: An Examination of the First Book of His Treatise. Oxford: Oxford University Press 1991.[13]
- Paradox and Platitude in Wittgenstein's Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2006.[14][15][16]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c O'Grady, Jane (2 July 2009). "Obituary: David Pears". The Guardian.
- ^ a b Levy, Paul (9 July 2009). "David Pears: Philosopher renowned for his work on Wittgenstein". The Independent.
- ^ a b c d e David Charles "Pears, David Francis (1921–2009), philosopher". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. (Archived by Wayback Machine).
- ^ a b Peacocke 2013, p. 325.
- ^ Anon, David Pears: philosopher, (obituary) The Times, 3 July 2009, Archived from the original by Wayback Machine
- ^ Peacocke 2013, p. 325–326.
- ^ a b Peacocke 2013, p. 326.
- ^ Edmonds, David (17 September 2024). Parfit: A Philosopher and His Mission to Save Morality. Princeton University Press. p. 80. ISBN 978-0-691-22524-1.
- ^ Addis, Mark (1 August 2005). "Pears, David". In Brown, Stuart (ed.). Dictionary of Twentieth-Century British Philosophers. A&C Black. pp. 756–760. ISBN 978-1843710967.
- ^ Seabright, Paul (20 September 1984). "When three is one". London Review of Books. Vol. 06, no. 17. ISSN 0260-9592. Archived from the original on 8 November 2025. Retrieved 8 November 2025.
- ^ Stroud, Barry (2002). "Private Objects, Physical Objects, and Ostension". Meaning, understanding, and practice : philosophical essays. New York : Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-925214-5.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link) - ^ Budd, Malcolm (4 December 1987). "Expounding a rope-trick". Times Literary Supplement. p. 1356.
- ^ Baier, Annette C. (1994). "Review of Hume's System: An Examination of the First Book of his Treatise". Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. 54 (2): 475–479. doi:10.2307/2108509. ISSN 0031-8205.
- ^ Moyal-Sharrock, Danièle (17 January 2008). "Paradox and Platitude in Wittgenstein's Philosophy". Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews. Archived from the original on 11 August 2024. Retrieved 8 November 2025.
- ^ Paradox and Platitude in Wittgenstein’s Philosophy (2008), critical notice by Derek A. McDougall for the British Wittgenstein Society.
- ^ White, Roger M. (2010). "Review of Paradox and Platitude in Wittgenstein's Philosophy". The Philosophical Review. 119 (3): 381–384. ISSN 0031-8108.
Sources
[edit]- Peacocke, Christopher (2013). "David Francis Pears 1921–2009" (PDF). Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the British Academy. XII: 325–338.
Further reading
[edit]- David Charles and William Child (Eds.). Wittgensteinian Themes: Essays in Honour of David Pears. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2002.
External links
[edit]
- "The Idea of Freedom" (1972) A philosophical conversation between Iris Murdoch and David Pears on ethics, freedom, determinism, and Freud, from the Logic Lane series of educational films by Michael Chanan
