W. B. Gallie

Walter Bryce Gallie (5 October 1912 – 31 August 1998) was a Scottish social theorist, political theorist, and philosopher. In 1940 he married Welsh-speaking novelist Menna Humphreys, with whom he had a son and a daughter. He made two notable contributions to philosophy. In 1952 he had his book Peirce and pragmatism published, which introduced the work of Charles Sanders Peirce to an international readership. In 1956 he introduced his concept of essentially contested concepts which argued that it is impossible to define certain concepts, for example, social justice, democracy, Christian life, art, moral goodness and duty, although it is possible and rational to discuss one's justifications for holding one interpretation over competing ones.