--- title: "A. E. Heath (1887–1961)" date: "2026-10-09T16:00:21+01:00" modified: "2026-10-09T16:00:22+01:00" url: "https://heritage.humanists.uk/a-e-heath-1887-1961/" post_id: 14579 categories: ["Education", "Philosophy", "Science"] tags: ["Philosophy", "Rationalism", "Science"] --- # A. E. Heath (1887–1961) > ‘The study of human beings, in all their complex doings between a sleep and a sleep, is an endless source of interest and puzzlement.’ > > A. E. Heath, quoted by H. J. Blackham at his funeral (*The Humanist*, July 1961) A. E. Heath was a philosopher, teacher, and wit who founded the philosophy department at University College, Swansea, and served as President of the [Rationalist Press Association](https://heritage.humanists.uk/rationalist-press-association/) from 1949 to 1954. Trained first in science and mathematics, he brought to rationalism a conviction that the methods of science belonged in every corner of human life, and a sense of fun that made difficult ideas easy to share. ### A philosopher at Swansea Born in 1887, Heath taught as a master at Oundle and at Bedales before lecturing at the universities of Manchester and Liverpool. In 1925 he became Professor of Philosophy at University College, Swansea, where he remained until 1952. His successor, J. R. Jones, opened his inaugural lecture by thanking Heath for twenty-seven years in which he had founded and built up the department, and for the help he went on giving in Jones’s own first year in the chair. His obituary in *The Humanist* recalled that his scientific and mathematical training gave his philosophy a firm foundation, and that he regarded the pursuit of knowledge as an adventure. For Watts & Co., the RPA’s publishers, he edited *Scientific Thought in the Twentieth Century*, introduced the [Thinker’s Library](https://heritage.humanists.uk/object/the-thinkers-library/) edition of [Herbert Spencer](https://heritage.humanists.uk/herbert-spencer/)’s *The Man versus the State*, and wrote the introduction to [Hector Hawton](https://heritage.humanists.uk/hector-hawton-1901-1975/)’s *Philosophy for Pleasure* (1949), praising its author for beating the professional philosophers at their own game. > ‘He wore his learning lightly and his unfailing sense of fun invaded serious topics.’ > > *The Humanist*, July 1961 ### The writ of reason Heath wrote regularly for the RPA from the war years onwards. His essay ‘Reason and Life’ appeared in the *Rationalist Annual* for 1945, and a run of articles in *The Literary Guide* followed. In one he compared scientists’ gentle treatment of religion with doctors’ reluctance to expose the patent-medicine trade; in another he separated the credulity of the believer from the credibility of claims that can be tested against facts; in a third he took apart Tennyson’s ‘honest doubt’ as a device for keeping doubt safely beneath faith. When the chemist and philosopher Michael Polanyi argued on the radio that a revival of ethics must lead back to religion, Heath replied that moral judgments could be studied as scientifically as any other. > ‘Rationalists hold that the writ of reason runs everywhere.’ > > A. E. Heath, ‘Values and Veracity’, *The Literary Guide*, June 1946 He lectured at the RPA’s first residential conference, at Wadham College, Oxford, in August 1945, speaking on science and cultural values and on philosophy and religion, and he reported for the *Guide* on the International Congress of Philosophy in Amsterdam in 1948. ![](https://heritage.humanists.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2026/10/heath-1948-literary-guide-1.jpg)A. E. Heath, photographed by Storm Gillings for his ‘Speaking Frankly’ column in *The Literary Guide*, August 1948. ### President of the RPA Heath joined the RPA’s Board in 1946 and became its President in 1949, the year the Association marked its jubilee. His presidential lecture to that year’s conference argued that scientific method could be applied to social questions, and took issue with thinkers who claimed that the future course of history was already fixed. As President he chaired the Association’s annual dinners, introducing speakers such as [Barbara Wootton](https://heritage.humanists.uk/barbara-wootton/) and Richard Crossman, while his monthly column in *The Literary Guide*, ‘Heathiana’, was enjoyed for its sly witticisms and irreverent tilts at established persons and institutions. Proposing a toast to him at the 1952 dinner, Royston Pike revealed that Heath had once coxed a rowing eight ‘with a considerable display of expletives’. Pike also recalled Heath’s tongue-in-cheek proposal, in the *Rationalist Annual*, that Shrewsbury’s dignified statue of [Charles Darwin](https://heritage.humanists.uk/charles-darwin/) should be joined by a second: a ragamuffin boy throwing a brick at it, in honour of Samuel Butler, the author of *Erewhon* and a fierce critic of Darwin, whom Heath thought just as entitled to the town’s reverence. Heath stood down as President in 1954, became a Vice-President in 1955, and left the Board in 1958. He died in 1961, and [H. J. Blackham](https://heritage.humanists.uk/harold-john-blackham/) conducted his funeral at Swansea. He was survived by his wife and their son, Edward. See also ---------- - [ Rationalist Press Association ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/rationalist-press-association/) - [ Hector Hawton ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/hector-hawton-1901-1975/) - [ Barbara Wootton ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/barbara-wootton/) - [ A Century of Reason: Part 2 ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/article/a-century-of-reason-2/)