    sir peter frederick strawson fba (; 23 november 1919&nbsp;â 13 february 2006) was an english philosopher. he was the waynflete professor of metaphysical philosophy at the university of oxford (magdalen college) from 1968 to 1987. before that he was appointed as a college lecturer at university college, oxford, in 1947 and became a tutorial fellow the following year until 1968. on his retirement in 1987, he returned to the college and continued working there until shortly before his death. ==early years== peter strawson was born in ealing, west london, and brought up in finchley, north london, by his parents, both of whom were teachers. he was educated at christ's college, finchley, followed by st john's college, oxford, where he read philosophy, politics and economics. ==career== strawson first became well known with his article "on referring" (1950), a criticism of bertrand russell's theory of descriptions (see also definite descriptions). in philosophical methodology, there are (at least) two important and interrelated features of strawson's work that are worthy of note. the first is the project of a 'descriptive' metaphysics, and the second is his notion of a shared conceptual scheme, composed of concepts operated in everyday life. in his book individuals, strawson attempts to give a description of various concepts that form an interconnected web, representing (part of) our common, shared, human conceptual scheme. in particular, he examines our conceptions of basic particulars, and how they are variously brought under general spatio-temporal concepts. what makes this a metaphysical project is that it exhibits, in fine detail, the structural features of our thought about the world, and thus precisely delimits how we, humans, think about reality. strawson was made a fellow of the [[british academ
1919_births 2006_deaths 20th-century_philosophers Alumni_of_St_John\'s_College,_Oxford Analytic_philosophers British_Army_personnel_of_World_War_II British_philosophers Epistemologists Fellows_of_Magdalen_College,_Oxford Fellows_of_University_College,_Oxford Fellows_of_the_American_Academy_of_Arts_and_Sciences Fellows_of_the_British_Academy Kantian_philosophers Knights_Bachelor Metaphysicians Ordinary_language_philosophy People_from_Ealing People_from_Finchley Philosophers_of_language Presidents_of_the_Aristotelian_Society Royal_Electrical_and_Mechanical_Engineers_officers Statutory_Professors_of_the_University_of_Oxford