Essays on Logic and Language

by Antony Flew (Editor), Gilbert Ryle, John Niemeyer Findlay

(From the cover) The editor of this collection of some of the most important articler on the linguistic movement had two purposes in view: first, he wanted to present to the lay public a selection of these articles in book form, so that they could examine examples of this new kind of philosophizing; second, he wanted to make it possible for people studying philosophy to buy and to own some of the important articles which previously they could only borrow from those few libraries which take the journals in which they originally appeared.

Genres: Philosophy

206 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1951

About the author

Antony Garrard Newton Flew (11 February 1923 – 8 April 2010) was a British philosopher. Belonging to the analytic and evidentialist schools of thought, he was notable for his works on the philosophy of religion.

Flew was a strong advocate of atheism, arguing that one should presuppose atheism until empirical evidence of a God surfaces. He also criticised the idea of life after death, the free will defence to the problem of evil, and the meaningfulness of the concept of God. In 2003 he was one of the signers of the Humanist Manifesto. However, in 2004 he stated an allegiance to deism, more specifically a belief in the Aristotelian God, stating that in keeping his lifelong commitment to go where the evidence leads, he now believes in the existence of God.

He later wrote the book There is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind, with contributions from Roy Abraham Varghese. This book (and Flew's conversion itself) has been the subject of controversy, following an article in the New York Times magazine alleging that Flew had mentally declined, and that Varghese was the primary author. The matter remains contentious, with some commentators including PZ Myers and Richard Carrier supporting the allegations, and others, including Flew himself, opposing them.