Αφού αποφοίτησε από το πανεπιστήμιο της Πρετόρια, ο Findlay φοίτησε με υποτροφία στο Balliol College, Oxford τα χρόνια 1924–1926. Από το 1927 έως το 1966 ήταν λέκτορας ή καθηγητής φιλοσοφίας σε αρκετά πανεπιστήμια. Μετά την αποχώρηση του από την έδρα στο Λονδίνο, Ο Findlay δίδαξε στο Πανεπιστήμιο του Γεηλ και στο πανεπιστήμιο της Βοστώνης. (1972–1987).[6][7][8]
Βιβλία
Meinong's Theory of Objects, Oxford University Press, 1933; 2nd ed. as Meinong's Theory of Objects and Values, 1963
Hegel: A Re-examination, London: Allen & Unwin/New York: Macmillan, 1958
Values and Intentions, London: Allen & Unwin, 1961
Language, Mind and Value, London: Allen & Unwin/New York: Humanities Press, 1963
The Discipline of the Cave, London: Allen & Unwin/New York: Humanities Press, 1966 (Gifford Lectures 1964–1965 [1])
The Transcendence of the Cave, London: Allen & Unwin/New York: Humanities Press, 1967 (Gifford Lectures 1965–1966 [2])
Axiological Ethics, London: Macmillan, 1970
Ascent to the Absolute, London: Allen & Unwin/New York: Humanities Press, 1970
Psyche and Cerebrum, Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 1972
Plato: The Written and Unwritten Doctrines, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul/New York: Humanities Press, 1974
Plato and Platonism, New York: New York Times Book Co., 1976
Kant and the Transcendental Object, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981
Wittgenstein: A Critique, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1984
"Morality by Convention", Mind, Vol. 33, No. 210 (1944): 142–169
"Can God's Existence Be Disproved?", Mind, Vol. 37, No. 226 (1948): 176–183; reprinted with discussion in Flew, A. and MacIntyre, A. C., (eds.), New Essays in Philosophical Theology, New York: Macmillan, 1955 [3]
"Foreword", in Frederick G. Weiss, ed., Hegel: The Essential Writings, Harper & Row/Harper Torchbooks, 1974. (ISBN0-06-131831-0).
"Foreword", in Hegel's Logic, Being Part One of The Encyclopaedia of the Philosophical Sciences (1830), Clarendon Press, 1975. (ISBN978-0-19-824512-4) [5]
Robert S. Cohen, Richard M. Martin, and Merold Westphal (eds.), Studies in the Philosophy of J.N. Findlay, Albany NY: State University of New York Press, 1985 (Includes autobiographical note by Findlay and his account of encounters with Wittgenstein). (ISBN978-0-87395-795-3)
Michele Marchetto, L'etica impersonale: La teoria dei valori di John Niemeyer Findlay, Edizioni scientifiche italiane, 1989. (ISBN978-88-7104-138-4); Eng. tr. 1989, Impersonal Ethics: John Niemeyer Findlay's Value-theory, Avebury, 1996. (ISBN978-1-85972-272-5)
Bockja Kim, Morality as the End of Philosophy: The Teleological Dialectic of the Good in J.N. Findlay's Philosophy of Religion, University Press of America, 1999. (ISBN978-0-7618-1490-0)