G. E. L. Owen matriculated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford in 1940 and concluded his BA there in 1948, after a 5 year period of war service in the Pacific arena. He completed a BPhil in 1950 at Oxford under the supervision of Gilbert Ryle. After post-doctoral research at Durham University, he returned to Oxford to teach and became Professor of Ancient Philosophy in 1963. In 1966 he went to Harvard as professor to steer a new PhD programme in Classical Philosophy. In 1973 Owen was appointed the Laurence Professor of Ancient Philosophy at the University of Cambridge, and a fellow of King's College, Cambridge.
Owen's work focussed upon the analysis of pre-Socratic philosophy, Aristotle and Plato, in particular logic, metaphysics and the philosophy of language. His work inspired and profoundly influenced the post-war philosophical study of ancient philosophy in the second half of the twentieth century.