William Herbert Newton-Smith (May 25, 1943 – April 8, 2023) was a Canadian philosopher of science.^[1][2]

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Newton-Smith's undergraduate degree from Queen's University was in Mathematics and Philosophy, in 1966. He took an MA from Cornell University in Philosophy, in 1968, and a DPhil in philosophy from Balliol College, Oxford, in 1974. His working life before retirement was mainly as a Fellow of Balliol.

Newton-Smith's 1980 book The Structure of Time focuses on the philosophy of time.^[3] In the 1980s he led a small team of British philosophers, including Kathy Wilkes and Roger Scruton, who travelled to Czechoslovakia to give unauthorized philosophy lectures.^[4]

Newton-Smith led Central European University from its foundation in 1991 until Alfred Stepan was elected rector in 1993.^[5]

Newton-Smith had two daughters with his first wife Dorris Heffron.^[6] His daughter Rain Newton-Smith is an economist who became the Director General of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) in April 2023.

In 2003, Newton-Smith and his second wife Nancy Durham were the first to grow lavender on a field scale in Wales. They became the sole distillers of lavender oil in Wales. Their company, Welsh Lavender Ltd, produces face and body creams.

Newton-Smith died of throat cancer on April 8, 2023, at the age of 79.^[7][8]

• The Structure of Time (1980)
• The Rationality of Science (1981)
• Logic (1984)
• Modelling the Mind (1990) editor with K. V. Wilkes
• Popper in China (1992) editor with J. Tianji
• Chapter 1 - Popper, ciência e racionalidade. In Karl Popper: Filosofia e problemas (1997), organized by Anthony O'Hear, translated to Portuguese by Luiz Paulo Rouanet. Editora Unesp. Cambridge University Press.
• The Companion to the Philosophy of Science (2000)