Nikhil Krishnan's Study of Oxford's 'Rebels of the Mind'

Nikhil Krishnan, a 1986-born philosopher who studied at Oxford and now teaches at Cambridge, has authored a book titled 'Rebellen des Geistes' (Rebels of the Mind) that examines the analytical philosophy movement in Oxford and Cambridge between 1920 and 1960. The book focuses on key figures such as John L. Austin, Iris Murdoch, Elizabeth Anscombe, Alfred Jules Ayer, Gilbert Ryle, and Philippa Foot, tracing the major lines of their thought in accessible language. Krishnan highlights Austin's emphasis on ordinary language and his famous dictum that 'saying something can mean doing something,' as articulated in his posthumous work 'How to Do Things with Words.' Ayer, aligned with the Vienna Circle, waged a 'great positivist campaign' against metaphysical and theological claims, arguing that philosophy must return to a prehistoric innocence free of 'isms.' Murdoch, a later Booker Prize winner and communist, criticized her colleagues for limiting themselves to common sense and ordinary language, asserting that 'normal language is not philosophy.' The book describes a 'revolution of thought' that swung from late-Victorian idealism to strict positivism, ultimately serving as a corrective for future philosophical concepts. The German translation by Dieter Fuchs is published by Reclam-Verlag in Stuttgart, 2026, priced at Fr. 49.90.