P. F. Strawson

Sir Peter Frederick Strawson
Born	23 November 1919 Ealing, West London
Died	13 February 2006(2006-02-13) (aged 86) London
Alma mater	St John's College, Oxford
Era	Contemporary philosophy
Region	Western Philosophy
School	Analytic
Main interests	Philosophy of language · Philosophy of mind
Notable ideas	Ordinary language philosophy, the distinction between sortal and characterising universals
Influences Ludwig Wittgenstein, Immanuel Kant, J. L. Austin, Bertrand Russell, A.J. Ayer, Gilbert Ryle
Influenced David Lewis, Ted Honderich, Colin McGinn, Arda Denkel, Ramchandra Gandhi, Martin Hollis, Robert Hanna, Keith Donnellan, Joshua Knobe, John Searle, Pierre Bourdieu

Sir Peter Frederick Strawson FBA (/ˈstrɔːsən/; 23 November 1919 – 13 February 2006), usually cited as P. F. Strawson, was an English philosopher. He was the Waynflete Professor of Metaphysical Philosophy at the University of Oxford (Magdalen College) from 1968 to 1987. Before that, he was appointed as a college lecturer at University College, Oxford, in 1947, and became a tutorial fellow the following year, until 1968. On his retirement in 1987, he returned to the college and continued working there until shortly before his death. His portrait was painted by the artist Daphne Todd.

When he died, the obituary in The Guardian noted that, "Oxford was the world capital of philosophy between 1950 and 1970, and American academics flocked there, rather than the traffic going the other way. That golden age had no greater philosopher than Sir Peter Strawson."

Peter Strawson was born in Ealing, west London, and brought up in Finchley, north London, by his parents, both of whom were teachers. He was educated at Christ's College, Finchley, followed by St John's College, Oxford, where he read Philosophy, Politics and Economics.

Strawson first became well known with his article "On Referring" (1950), a criticism of Bertrand Russell's Theory of Descriptions (see also Definite descriptions).