b. 1935
Michael Ayers is a British analytic philosopher and emeritus professor at the University of Oxford, best known for his landmark two-volume study of John Locke. His work bridges the history of early modern philosophy and systematic epistemology, with sustained attention to perception, substance, and the nature of knowledge. He has also engaged questions in philosophy of religion, including the logical constraints on divine permission of error.
Authored the definitive two-volume study Locke: Epistemology and Ontology (1991)
Advanced understanding of Locke's theory of substance and real essence
Contributed to debates on perception, ideas, and representationalism in early modern thought
Explored constraints on divine permission of error within theodicy