Gwilym Ellis Lane Owen

Who was Gwilym Ellis Lane Owen?

Gwilym Ellis Lane Owen, who published as G. E. L. Owen, was a Welsh philosopher, concerned with the history of Ancient Greek philosophy. From 1973 until his death he was the fourth Laurence Professor of Ancient Philosophy at the University of Cambridge. An undergraduate at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where after research at Durham he taught, he proceeded in 1966 to Harvard University, where his many distinguished students included Julia Annas, Gail Fine, Wilbur Knorr, Martha Nussbaum, Donald J. Zeyl, Terence Irwin and Nicholas P. White. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1969.

He is known particularly for his ideas on the development of Aristotle. He has been classed with J. L. Ackrill and Gregory Vlastos as influential in creating interest in the field, in the Anglo-American context.