Peter Thomas Geach

(British philosopher, 1916–). Geach has made major contributions to philosophical logic, the theory of identity, philosophy of religion and history of philosophy. He is well known for his 1960 essay, "Ascriptivism", in which he refutes H. L. A. Hart's "ascriptivism" (the notion that to call an action voluntary is to express a commitment to hold the agent of the action responsible for it, rather than to describe the action as in some way caused by the agent), and for discrediting the notion of "distribution" in logic (Reference and Generality, 1968). Geach's Catholicism is central to his philosophy, and he is sometimes credited as the founder of Analytical Thomism.