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A. C. Grayling | |
|---|---|
 At the 2011Edinburgh International Book Festival | |
| Master of theNew College of the Humanities | |
| Assumed office 2011 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Anthony Clifford Grayling (1949-04-03)3 April 1949 (age 76) |
| Nationality | British |
| Children | 3 |
| Residence(s) | Central London,England |
| Alma mater | University of Sussex (BA,MA) University of London (BA) Magdalen College, Oxford (DPhil) |
| Signature |  |
| Website | acgrayling |
| Education | |
| Thesis | Epistemological Scepticism and Transcendental Arguments (1981) |
| Doctoral advisors | |
| Philosophical work | |
| Era | Contemporary philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | |
| Main interests | Epistemology,history of ideas,humanist ethics,logic,metaphysics |
| Notable ideas | Criticism ofarguments for the existence of God |
Anthony Clifford GraylingCBE FRSA FRSL (/ˈɡreɪlɪŋ/; born 3 April 1949) is a Britishphilosopher andauthor. He was born inNorthern Rhodesia (nowZambia) and spent most of his childhood there and in Nyasaland (nowMalawi).[1] Until June 2011, he was Professor of Philosophy atBirkbeck, University of London, where he taught from 1991. In 2011 he founded and became the first Master ofNew College of the Humanities (now Northeastern University London), an independent undergraduate college in London. He is also asupernumerary fellow ofSt Anne's College, Oxford, where he formerly taught.[2]
Grayling is the author of about 30 books onphilosophy,biography,history of ideas,human rights andethics, includingThe Refutation of Scepticism (1985),The Future of Moral Values (1997),Wittgenstein (1992),What Is Good? (2000),The Meaning of Things (2001),The Good Book (2011),The God Argument (2013),The Age of Genius: The Seventeenth Century and the Birth of the Modern Mind (2016) andDemocracy and its Crises (2017).
Grayling was a trustee of theLondon Library and a fellow of theWorld Economic Forum, and is a fellow of theRoyal Society of Literature and theRoyal Society of Arts.[3] For a number of years he was a columnist forThe Guardian newspaper,[4] and presented theBBC World Service seriesExchanges at the Frontier[5] onscience and society.
Grayling was a director and contributor atProspect magazine from its foundation until 2016. He is a vice-president ofHumanists UK, honorary associate of theNational Secular Society,[6] and Patron of the Defence Humanists.[7] His main academic interests lie inepistemology,metaphysics, andphilosophical logic and he has published works in these subjects.[3] His political affiliations lie on thecentre-left, and he has defended human rights and politically liberal values in print and by activism.[8] He is associated in Britain with otherNew Atheists.[9] He frequently appears in British media discussing philosophy and public affairs.[10] In his book,Democracy and Its Crisis, Grayling argues that voting systems must be reformed to prevent certain results, such asBrexit and the 2017 election ofDonald Trump.[11][12]
Son of Henry Clifford and Ursula Adelaide Grayling (née Burns),[13][14] Grayling was born and raised inLuanshya,Northern Rhodesia (nowZambia), within the British expatriate enclave, and raised there and inNyasaland (nowMalawi)[1] where his father worked as manager[15] for theStandard Bank.[16] He attended several boarding schools, includingFalcon College inSouthern Rhodesia (nowZimbabwe), from which he ran away after being regularly caned.[17] His first exposure to philosophical writing was at the age of twelve, when he found an English translation of theCharmides, one ofPlato's dialogues, in a local library.[16] At age fourteen, he readG. H. Lewes'sBiographical History of Philosophy (1846), which confirmed his ambition to study philosophy; he said it "superinduced order on the random reading that had preceded it, and settled my vocation".[18]
Grayling had an elder sister Jennifer and brother John.[19] When he was 19 years old, his elder sister Jennifer was murdered inJohannesburg. She had been born with brain damage, and after brain surgery to alleviate it at the age of 20 had experienced personality problems that led to emotional difficulties[19] and a premature marriage. She was found dead in a river shortly after the marriage; she had been stabbed. When her parents went to identify her, her mother—already ill—had a heart attack and died. Grayling said he dealt with his grief by becoming a workaholic.[20]
After moving to England in his teens, he spent three years at theUniversity of Sussex, but said that although he applauded their intention to educate generalists, he wished to be a scholar, so in addition to his BA from Sussex, he also completed one in philosophy as aUniversity of London external student.[21] He went on to obtain an MA from Sussex, then attendedMagdalen College, Oxford, where he was taught byP. F. Strawson andA. J. Ayer, obtaining his doctorate in 1981 for a thesis onEpistemological Scepticism and Transcendental Arguments. A part of that thesis is published asThe Refutation of Scepticism (1985) and its themes are further developed inScepticism and the Possibility of Knowledge (2008).[22]
Grayling lectured in philosophy atBedford College, London, andSt Anne's College, Oxford,[2] before taking up a post in 1991 atBirkbeck, University of London, where in 1998 he becamereader in philosophy, and in 2005 professor.[23] In addition to his work on Berkeley, philosophical logic, the theory of knowledge, and the history of ideas,[24] the latter including (as chief editor) the four-volumeThe Continuum Encyclopedia of British Philosophy,[25] he wrote and edited several pedagogical works in philosophy, includingAn Introduction to Philosophical Logic (3rd ed., 1999)[26] and the two volumesPhilosophy: A Guide Through the Subject (1995)[27] andPhilosophy: Further Through the Subject (1998).[28]
In his philosophical work, Grayling connected solutions to the problem ofscepticism inepistemology with the questions about assertability and the problem of meaning in the philosophy of language andlogic. A principal theme in his work is that considerations ofmetaphysics, which relate to what exists, has to be kept separate from the two connected questions of the relation of thought to its objects in the variety of domains over which thought ranges, and the mastery of discourses about those domains, where a justificationist approach is required.[29]
Grayling resigned from Birkbeck in June 2011 to found and become the first master ofNew College of the Humanities, an independent undergraduate college in London. In February 2019,Northeastern University, a private research university inBoston, Massachusetts, USA, purchased the New College of the Humanities.[30] He is a Supernumerary Fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford. He was a judge on the Man Booker prize 2003[31] and Chairman of the Judges for the 2014Man Booker Prize.[32] He has also been a judge on theWellcome Trust Book Prize[33] and the Art Fund prize.[34]
In 2013 he was awarded the Forkosch Literary Prize,[35] and in 2015 he received the Bertrand Russell Society Award.[36] Grayling was appointedCommander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the2017 New Year Honours for services to philosophy.[37]
For Grayling, work on technical problems is only one aspect of philosophy. Another aspect, one which has been at the centre of philosophy's place in history, has more immediate application to daily life: the questions of ethics, which revolve upon what Grayling calls the great Socratic question, 'How should one live?'. In pursuit of what he describes as 'contributing to the conversation society has with itself about possibilities for good lives in good societies', Grayling writes widely on contemporary issues, includingwar crimes, thelegalisation of drugs,euthanasia,secularism, human rights and other topics in the tradition ofPolemics. He has articulated positions onhumanist ethics and on the history and nature of concepts of liberty as applied in civic life. In support of his belief that the philosopher should engage in public debate, he brings these philosophical perspectives to issues of the day in his work as a writer and as a commentator on radio and television.[38]
Among his contributions to the discussion about religion in contemporary society he argues that there are three separable, though naturally connected debates:
On this last point, Grayling's view is that for historical reasons religions have an inflated place in the public domain out of all proportion to the numbers of their adherents or their intrinsic merits, so that their voice and influence is amplified disproportionately: with the result that they can distort such matters as public policy (e.g. on abortion) and science research and education (e.g.stem cells,teaching of evolution). He argues that winning the metaphysical and ethical debates is already abating the problems associated with (c) in more advanced Western societies, even the US. He sees his own major contribution as being the promotion of understanding of humanist ethics deriving from the philosophical tradition.[39]
Between 1999 and 2002 Grayling wrote a weekly column inThe Guardian called "The Last Word", on a different topic every week. In these columns, which also formed the basis of a series of books for a general readership, commencing withThe Meaning of Things in 2001, Grayling made the basics of philosophy available to the layperson. He is a regular contributor toThe Guardian's "Comment is free" group blog, and writes columns for, among others, theProspect andNew Scientist magazines.
Grayling is accredited with theUnited Nations Human Rights Council, and is a patron ofHumanists UK, an Honorary Associate of theNational Secular Society, Patron of the Defence Humanists,[7] was a Trustee of theLondon Library, and a board member of theSociety of Authors and an Honorary Patron of the Philosophy Foundation, a charity whose aim is to bring philosophy to the wider community, and particularly to disadvantaged schools. In 2003 he was aBooker Prize judge[40] and Chairman of the Judges for the 2014Man Booker Prize.[32] In 2005, Grayling debated with Christian philosopherWilliam Lane Craig on whether God can exist in an evil world.[41][42] Grayling is also a Patron of the right to die organisation,My Death My Decision.[43]
Grayling wrote a book on theallied strategic air offensive in World War II,Among the Dead Cities: The History and Moral Legacy of the WWII Bombing of Civilians in Germany and Japan (2006), as a contribution to the debate on theethics of war.[44][45] In September 2010, Grayling was one of 55 public figures who sent a letter toThe Guardian expressing their opposition toPope Benedict XVI's state visit to the UK.[46] In August 2014, Grayling was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter toThe Guardian opposingScottish independence in the run-up to September'sreferendum on that issue.[47]
A. C. Grayling was one of the contributors to the book,We Are One: A Celebration of Tribal Peoples, released in October 2009.[48] The book explores the cultures of peoples around the world, portraying both their diversity and the threats they face. Other contributors included not only western writers, such asLaurens van der Post,Noam Chomsky,Claude Lévi-Strauss, but also indigenous people, such asDavi Kopenawa Yanomami andRoy Sesana. The royalties from the sale of this book go to the indigenous rights organisation,Survival International.
In recent years Grayling has been campaigning against the UK Government's response to the2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum result. In his book,Democracy and Its Crisis, Grayling argues that voting systems must be reformed to prevent certain results, such asBrexit and the election ofDonald Trump.[11][12] Grayling has tweeted that Brexit must be made to disappear like a "nasty, temporary, hiccup, soon forgotten".[49][50]
Grayling lives in central London. He has two children from his first marriage, Anthony Joslin Clifford Grayling and Georgina Eveline Ursula Grayling, and one daughter, Madeline Catherine Jennifer Grayling, from his second marriage to novelistKatie Hickman.[51]
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)Foreword to Shyam Wuppuluri,N. C. A. da Costa (eds.),"Wittgensteinian (adj.): Looking at the World from the Viewpoint of Wittgenstein's Philosophy" Springer — The Frontiers Collection, 2019.
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