Background

William Kneale was born on June 22, 1906, in Liverpool, United Kingdom.

Education

William Kneale attended Liverpool Institute High School for Boys. Later he studied at Brasenose College where he gained first-class honors in Greats in 1927. After that, Kneale went to Paris and attended lectures by psychologist Janet, and to Freiburg, where he heard Husserl. In the 1960s William Kneale received honorary degrees from Aberdeen, Durham and St Andrews.

Career

William Kneale started his career as an assistant lecturer at Aberdeen and Newcastle. In 1932, he became a lecturer at Oxford University. In the 1940s, he started to learn more about the history of the Science of Logic. He wrote his first book Probability and Inductions in 1949. As a philosopher of science Kneale also dealt with probability theory and inductive thinking. In addition, he wrote some works on philosophical logic. In 1960, Kneale took up a post of White's Professor of Moral Philosophy and held this post until 1966. In 1962, he wrote The Development of Logic.

Achievements

• William Kneale was an English educator, philosopher, and writer who is famous for his book The Development of Logic. He also wrote over forty articles about metaphysics, philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, epistemology and philosophical logic.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Development of Logic

    (This book traces the development of formal logic from its...)

    1962
  • Probability and Inductions 1949

Views

William Kneale's philosophical treatment was based on and integrated with tight formal principles. He believed that a proper appreciation of most philosophical problems is impossible without an understanding of their history.

Kneale also affirmed two main principles of a rationalistic flavour that were that laws of nature are modal propositions about natural necessity, not mere universal of fact or open conjunctions, and that what is meant by a probability-statement is that the ranges of the related characteristics, defined in terms of their ultimately specific constituents, coincide in a certain proportion.

Membership

William Kneale was elected a fellow of the British Academy in 1950 and served as Vice-President from 1971 to 1972.

In 1964 he became chairman of the British Society for the Philosophy of Science. In 1964 he was chairman of the Kneale Commission, which enforced a major reorganization of study at Oxford.

Personality

Physical Characteristics: William Kneale usually dressed rather formally. He could have passed for a banker or a senior civil servant.

Interests

• History of logic induction and probability

Connections

William Kneale married Martha Hurst in 1938. The marriage produced two children.

Wife:

Martha Hurst

Daughter:

Barbara Jane Heal

Son:

George Kneale