Antony Flew
Professor Antony Garrard Newton Flew (born February 11 1923) is a British philosopher who has been connected with a number of right wing publications and think-tanks.
Biography
Flew was born in London in 1923, the son of a Methodist minister Rev. Dr R. N. Flew. He was educated at St. Faith's Preparatory School in Cambridge followed by Kingswood School in Bath. [1]
During the Second World War he studied Japanese at the School of Oriental and African Studies, and was a Royal Air Force intelligence officer.
After the war, Flew achieved a first class degree in Literae Humaniores at St John's College, Oxford. Flew was a graduate student of Gilbert Ryle, and one of the more prominent in a group identified with ordinary language philosophy.
He was a Lecturer in Philosophy at Christ Church, Oxford from 1949 to 1950, and followed this with four years as a lecturer at the University of Aberdeen, and twenty years as Professor of Philosophy at the University of Keele. Between 1973 and 1983 he was Professor of Philosophy at the University of Reading, and on his retirement took up a half-time post for a few years at York University, Toronto. [2]
Right wing activism
Like many other intellectuals Flew was alarmed by the emergence of the 'New Left' in the 1960s and the trade union activism of the 1970s. He later became closely associated with the rise of the 'New Right' and was involved in several think-tanks that emerged from the mid-70s onwards advocated the deregulation of business, the cutting of public services and the curtailment of trade union power.
A good example of Flew's hostility to popular movements comes from a letter he wrote to The Observer in May 1963. Following the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament's march to Aldermaston, The Observer had reported research by National Opinion Polls finding that 57 per cent of the inhabitants of Greater London were in favour of the marchers’ aims. Flew wrote to the paper complaining that respondents were probably not aware of the true aims of CND: ‘They may all too easily have overlooked that what crucially distinguishes the C.N.D. from most of the rest of us, is not as its title suggests, a desire for nuclear disarmament but, what it conceals, that the C.N.D is prepared to have us (and the West as a whole) disarm unilaterally. It is of course, this aspect of the C.N.D which commends it to the Communist World!’ [3]
He was a founder member of the Education Group of the Centre for Policy Studies (founded in 1974), the Council of the Freedom Association (founded in 1975), and the Academic Council of the Adam Smith Institute (founded in 1977). [4]
Flew was a member of the study group behind a report published in 1977 by the intelligence connected Institute for the Study of Conflict alleging a Marxist penetration into British academia. [5] Considering the ideological orientation of the study group, The Observer commented that: ‘The study group seems to believe with Professor Hayek and his disciple, Sir Keith Joseph, that true liberty is possible only in a capitalist, free market civilisation.’ [6]
The Times reported the report’s findings that: ‘radical minorities...often disagreed with each other, but they had a common distaste, bordering at times upon sheer hatred for the liberal, tolerant society in which they moved.’ [7] The Times published extracts of the report, but also criticised it as having an ‘alarmist tone which goes beyond his evidence.’ [8]
In the late 1980s Flew became an active vice-president of the Western Goals Institute, a pressure group opposed to immigration and free trade, and supportive of apartheid. Flew was also a committee member of Majority Rights, alongside Ray Honeyford and Tim Janman.
He has contributed to Right Now! magazine, the Salisbury Review, and publications of the Libertarian Alliance, the Social Affairs Unit, the Society for Individual Freedom and the Institute of Economic Affairs.
In 1995 Flew authored a report for the Adam Smith Institute criticisng GCSE exams for being too easy, and recommending the reintroduction of O-levels. Flew proposed in the report a '10-point plan' to 'revitalise and lead to vital improvements in the education system.' [9]
Notes
- ↑ ‘FLEW, Prof. Antony Garrard Newton’, Who's Who 2009, A & C Black, 2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2008
- ↑ ‘FLEW, Prof. Antony Garrard Newton’, Who's Who 2009, A & C Black, 2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2008
- ↑ Letters to the Editor, The Observer, 5 May 1963
- ↑ 'FLEW, Prof, Antony Garrard Newton', Debrett's People of Today (Debrett's Peerage Ltd, November 2007
- ↑ ‘Gould report calls for rebuttal of attacks on education in Britain by extreme radicals’, The Times, Wednesday, Sep 21, 1977; pg. 4; Issue 60114; col A
- ↑ Bernard Crick, ‘Red sails on the campus’, The Observer, 25 September 1977
- ↑ 'Marxists attacking education', The Times, Wednesday, Sep 21, 1977; pg. 1; Issue 60114; col E
- ↑ ’The Enemies of Liberty’, The Times, Wednesday, Sep 21, 1977; pg. 15; Issue 60114; col A
- ↑ 'Right wing's 10-point plan for schools', The Independent, 19 April 1995
