Unknown author · Public domain

A philosopher who, in his twenties, wrote Language, Truth, and Logic (1936) and detonated a bomb under decades of metaphysical speculation, arguing that a great deal of traditional philosophy was not false so much as meaningless. He'd formed the argument during a winter with Vienna Circle logical positivists, then spent the war as a British intelligence officer before returning to hold chairs at University College London and Oxford. A committed humanist, he served as president of the Homosexual Law Reform Society, joking that "as a notorious heterosexual I could never be accused of feathering my own nest."