Walter Bryce Gallie (5 October 1912 â 31 August 1998) was a Scottish social theorist, political theorist, and philosopher. In 1940 he married Welsh-speaking novelist Menna Humphreys, with whom he had a son and a daughter. He made two notable contributions to philosophy. In 1952 he had his book Peirce and pragmatism published, which introduced the work of Charles Sanders Peirce to an international readership. In 1956 he introduced his concept of essentially contested concepts which argued that it is impossible to define certain concepts, for example, social justice, democracy, Christian life, art, moral goodness and duty, although it is possible and rational to discuss one's justifications for holding one interpretation over competing ones.
W. B. Gallie was born in Lenzie, East Dunbartonshire, near Glasgow, the son of an engineer. He was educated at Sedbergh School, a public school in Sedbergh, Cumbria, and Balliol College, Oxford. In 1934 he graduated with first class honours in Philosophy, politics and economics. In 1937 he received his Bachelor of Literature for his research into The part played by symbols in the achievement of knowledge. In 1935 he obtained a post in University College of Swansea as an assistant lecturer in philosophy. In 1938 he was appointed as a lecturer. In 1948 he was appointed as a senior lecturer.
While in Swansea, Gallie met Menna Humphreys, who was studying for an English degree in the University, who he married. In 1949 he had published his first book An English School, his 'reflections on his schooldays as a Classics specialist at Sedburgh between the wars, and on education in general'. In 1960 he had published A new university: A.D. Lindsay and the Keele experiment, his homage to A.D. Lindsay, the longstanding Scottish academic. Gallie died in Cardigan, Ceredigion, on 31 August 1998. In 2000 an article was published in Philosophical Investigations which comprises extracts from his partly-autobiographical projected book Apologia Pro Opusculo Suo.
Gallie served in the British Army from 1940 to 1945. He left the service with the rank of Major, having been awarded the Croix de Guerre. Philosopher R.A. Sharpe commented: 'The time he spent in the army evidently made an (sic) great impression upon him. He was a very out-going man. However, he never spoke of his wartime experiences, although he repeatedly returned to the philosophical aspects of war in conversation.'
In 1948 Gallie and his wife were visited in Swansea by A.D. Lindsay, the Master of Balliol College, Oxford, who told them of his idea for a new university in Keele in North Staffordshire, the 'University College of North Staffordshire' (the forerunner of Keele University) and his wish for Gallie to be its professor of philosophy. In the following year, Gallie and his wife visited Lindsay, who was living with his family on the Keele Estate, the prospective campus of the new university, where his wife gave them a guided tour. The Gallies left Swansea in the following year to take up his new post, after never having been 'much in sympathy with the Wittgensteinian influence which was beginning to dominate there'. British philosopher Christopher Hookway (2014) observed: However, Lindsay was similarly disposed. Gallie disclosed that, when he visited him in 1949, he told him about Peirce, on whom he was then working. In particular Gallie told Lindsay about Peirce's 'experimental Pragmatism', about which Lindsay 'didn't see anything very special'.
In 1954, two years after A.D. Lindsay died, Gallie became 'Professor of Logic and Metaphysics' at Queen's University, Belfast. In 1967 he became 'Professor of Political Science' at Cambridge University. While there he was a fellow of Peterhouse from 1967 to 1978. When he retired, he and his wife settled in Newport, a village on the coast of Cardigan Bay, Pembrokeshire.
In 1952, while at Keele, Gallie had his book Peirce and pragmatism published, which introduced the work of Charles Sanders Peirce to an international readership. A.J. Ayer, the English philosopher, provided the Editorial Foreword to the book. In it he credited Peirce's philosophy as being 'not only of great historical significance, as one of the original sources of American pragmatism, but also extremely important in itself.' Ayer concluded: 'it is clear from Professor GallieâÂÂs exposition of his doctrines that he is a philosopher from whom we still have much to learn.'
Gallie argued in his 1956 paper Essentially contested concepts that it is impossible to conclusively define key appraisive concepts such as social justice, democracy, Christian life, art, moral goodness and duty, although it is possible and rational to discuss one's justifications for holding one interpretation over competing ones. Clarification of such concepts involves not the examination of predictive relations (as is the case for most scientific concepts), but rather, consideration of how the concept has been used by different parties throughout its history.
Gallie was a prolific author and the articles that he had published which are listed below are only a sample. Works by Gallie, W.B. may be consulted for a complete listing.
Pre 1950
1950s
1960s
1970s
Post 1980