1903 – 1987
John Niemeyer Findlay (1903–1987) was a South African-born British philosopher known for his synthetic engagement with analytic philosophy, Kantian criticism, and German Idealism. He made significant contributions to value theory, philosophy of mind, and the interpretation of Hegel and Meinong, and is perhaps best remembered for his 1948 paper arguing for an ontological disproof of God's existence, a position he later revised.
Argued for an ontological disproof of divine existence in 'Can God's Existence Be Disproved?' (1948), sparking major debate in analytic philosophy of religion
Authored 'Hegel: A Re-examination' (1958), a landmark rehabilitation of Hegel for anglophone audiences
Produced influential scholarly work on Alexius Meinong's theory of objects
Developed a neo-Platonic value theory in 'Axiological Ethics' (1970)
Contributed to Kant scholarship, particularly on transcendental idealism and the theory of space