Philosopher

John Wisdom

Cambridge philosopher of ordinary language — other minds, the invisible gardener and the point of paradox

University of Cambridge (Trinity College); University of Oregon · United Kingdom · d. 12 September 1904 (Leyton, Essex) — 9 December 1993 (Cambridge)

Arthur John Terence Dibben Wisdom came to Cambridge from St Andrews in 1934, fell under Wittgenstein's influence, and held the chair of philosophy from 1952 to 1968. His 1944 paper Gods, with its parable of two men disputing whether an unseen gardener tends a plot, gave the philosophy of religion one of its most reworked images; Antony Flew borrowed and sharpened it in 1950. He died on 9 December 1993.