J.L. Austin: Philosopher and D-Day Intelligence Officer by M.W. Rowe

Reviewed by Thomas Nagel

Among philosophers​ of the 20th century, John Langshaw Austin is not a cultural celebrity like Heidegger, Russell, Sartre or Wittgenstein. But for a period after the Second World War, he was the leading figure of the school of ordinary language philosophy that dominated Oxford, achieved substantial influence in the wider Anglophone world and left its stamp for a much longer time on the way analytic philosophers work, think and write. Austin died of cancer in 1960 at the age of 48. Though he published only a handful of substantial essays during his lifetime, there are also significant posthumous publications, and Austin’s philosophical ideas, the power of his personal influence and his central position in the philosophical developments of his time make him a natural subject for an intellectual biography. But M.W. Rowe’s book isn’t just an intellectual biography. He has discovered that Austin was one of the most important Allied military intelligence officers during the Second World War, overseeing the team that made the Normandy landings possible. More than a third of the book is taken up with Austin’s five years in the army, and with the achievements he never talked about, even to his wife.

Rowe has produced a marvellous book, which manages to be both exhaustive and thoroughly absorbing. It accomplishes three things. First, it gives a detailed account of Austin’s philosophical development, his background, his works and his academic career and influence, accompanied at each stage by interpretations and criticisms that are judicious and insightful. Rowe shows himself to be an excellent philosopher in his own right. Second, the book presents the results of Rowe’s painstaking archival research on Austin’s intelligence career, placing it in the context of British and Allied intelligence concerning Western Europe and North Africa. It gives a fascinating account of the way military intelligence is generated and the crucial role it plays in every military operation, with D-Day as a spectacular example. Third, Rowe offers a perceptive analysis of Austin’s personal qualities and their part in his academic and military engagements…

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v45/n17/thomas-nagel/leader-of-the-martians