Alan R. White


Alan Richard White was an ordinary language philosopher who worked mainly in epistemology, the philosophy of mind, and legal philosophy.

Biography

Alan R. White was born in Toronto on 9 October 1922, the elder of two children born to George Albert White and Jean Gabriel White.
He was educated at Middleton College. Cork, and at Trinity College, Dublin where he served as President of the University Philosophical Society. Obtaining firsts in classics and mental and moral philosophy at Trinity he is said to have scored over 100 per cent in his exams by taking them in Gaelic,. White completed his PhD at the University of London under the supervision of A.J. Ayer.
After briefly serving as a deputy lecturer at Trinity, Dublin, White was appointed as an assistant lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Hull in 1946. At the time the departmental staff consisted solely of himself and Professor T.E. Jessop. White succeeded Jessop to become the second Ferens Professor of Philosophy at Hull in 1961, a post he retained until his retirement in 1989. He was also a Visiting Professor at a number of American universities and served as Secretary, and then president, of the Mind Association and as President of the Aristotelian Society.
White retired to Nottingham, where he had been appointed Special Professor in 1986. He died at his home in Sherwood, Nottingham on 23 February 1992.
His papers are held at Hull University Archives..
A volume of White's selected papers, as edited by Constantine Sandis with John Preston and David Dolby is forthcoming.

Works

Authored Books
Edited Books
Select Papers
A more complete listing of White's publications can be found at PhilPapers.