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Philosophy at Cambridge page 1 May 2008 Philosophy at Cambridge Newsletter of the Faculty of Philosophy Issue 5 May 2008 From the Chair Welcome to the fifth issue of our Newsletter. The case for the importance of the humanities, philosophy among them, needs always to be made afresh. Public funding is unpredictable — as we see with the recent announcement from the Arts and Humanities Research Council of a reduction in the number of graduate studentships to be offered. No doubt times will continue to be interesting. But the contributions in the Newsletter provide many reasons for cheer. They bear witness, among other things, to the influence of Cambridge philosophy in surprising places and to the powerful attraction which studying philosophy can exert. The Editor of the Newsletter since the first edition in 2004 has been Mrs Mariella Pellegrino. The warm response to it shows what an excellent job she has done. Mrs Pellegrino has also been very active in building up the Faculty’s archives and in making available interesting historical material. Some of you may have met her at the exhibitions which the Faculty has mounted at recent Alumni Weekends. She and her family have now moved to California. The Faculty and the readers of the Newsletter are grateful to her for her notable contribution. Mrs Jennifer Lecky-Thompson, our new Librarian, will be editor from the next edition. The Faculty will also have a new Chairman from later this year, when Dr Alex Oliver takes over. So I take this opportunity of sending best wishes to you all. I hope I shall have the opportunity of meeting many of you at future Faculty and Alumni events. Jane Heal FBA Professor of Philosophy Chair of the Faculty Board Radical Hope Jonathan Lear Wittgenstein’s thought that meaning is inherently bound up with forms of life has been extensively examined — to a significant extent in Cambridge — for the light it sheds on language, mind and action. But there is an ethical question that has not been paid the attention it deserves. If forms of life are vulnerable to the vagaries of historical and natural change, it would seem that meaningfulness somehow inherits that vulnerability. What would it be to live well with this vulnerability? I take this question to be ethical in the broadly Socratic sense of trying to figure out how one should live. And though it may become most pressing in times of crisis, the question confronts us insofar as we are human. For even at a time when a form of life is robust, it remains vulnerable. To figure out what it would be to live well with this possibility, whether it is actualized or not, would be to face up to the ethical dimension of Wittgenstein’s insight. My thought was captured by a haunting phrase of Plenty Coups, the last great Chief of the Crow Nation. Speaking of the painful transition from the Crow’s traditional nomadic-hunting- warrior way of life to the as- yet inchoate forms of reservation life, Plenty Coups said, “After the buffalo went away, the hearts of my people fell to the ground and they could not lift them up again. After this, nothing happened.” Were I an anthropologist, I might have wanted to figure out what he meant. But as a philosopher, I wanted to carry out a historically and anthropologically informed thought- experiment: what might he have meant if he were not speaking metaphorically, but trying to stand witness to things ceasing to happen? Here I was influenced by two philosophers who are not much studied in the Cambridge curriculum, Kierkegaard and Heidegger. In different ways, each is interested in the philosophical significance of a figure willing to take responsibility for a form of life, by articulating what its limit conditions are. Plenty Coups, as I interpret him, is saying not merely that it is no longer possible to hunt and battle, but that these activities had ceased to be intelligible ways to live. A young Jonathan Lear

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Page 1: Philosophy at Cambridge · 2008-05-09 · Philosophy at Cambridge page 2 May 2008 member of the tribe might get on a horse, take a bow and arrow and sneak off the reservation, but

Philosophy at Cambridge page 1 May 2008

Philosophy at CambridgeNewsletter of the Faculty of Philosophy

Issue 5May 2008

From the ChairWelcome to the fifth issue of ourNewsletter. The case for theimportance of the humanities,philosophy among them, needs alwaysto be made afresh. Public funding isunpredictable — as we see with therecent announcement from the Artsand Humanities Research Council of areduction in the number of graduatestudentships to be offered. No doubttimes will continue to be interesting.But the contributions in the Newsletterprovide many reasons for cheer. Theybear witness, among other things, tothe influence of Cambridge philosophyin surprising places and to thepowerful attraction which studyingphilosophy can exert.

The Editor of the Newsletter sincethe first edition in 2004 has been MrsMariella Pellegrino. The warmresponse to it shows what an excellentjob she has done. Mrs Pellegrino hasalso been very active in building up theFaculty’s archives and in makingavailable interesting historical material.Some of you may have met her at theexhibitions which the Faculty hasmounted at recent Alumni Weekends.She and her family have now moved toCalifornia. The Faculty and the readersof the Newsletter are grateful to herfor her notable contribution. MrsJennifer Lecky-Thompson, our newLibrarian, will be editor from the nextedition.

The Faculty will also have a newChairman from later this year, whenDr Alex Oliver takes over. So I takethis opportunity of sending best wishesto you all. I hope I shall have theopportunity of meeting many of you atfuture Faculty and Alumni events.

Jane Heal FBAProfessor of PhilosophyChair of the Faculty Board

Radical HopeJonathan Lear

Wittgenstein’s thought that meaning isinherently bound up with forms of lifehas been extensively examined — to asignificant extent in Cambridge — forthe light it sheds on language, mind andaction. But there is an ethical questionthat has not been paid the attention itdeserves. If forms of life are vulnerableto the vagaries of historical and naturalchange, it would seem thatmeaningfulness somehow inherits thatvulnerability. What would it be to livewell with this vulnerability? I take thisquestion to be ethical in the broadlySocratic sense of trying to figure outhow one should live. And though itmay become most pressing in times of

crisis, the question confrontsus insofar as we are human.For even at a time when aform of life is robust, itremains vulnerable. To figureout what it would be to livewell with this possibility,whether it is actualized ornot, would be to face up tothe ethical dimension ofWittgenstein’s insight.

My thought was capturedby a haunting phrase ofPlenty Coups, the last greatChief of the Crow Nation.Speaking of the painfultransition from the Crow’straditional nomadic-hunting-warrior way of life to the as-yet inchoate forms ofreservation life, Plenty Coupssaid, “After the buffalo wentaway, the hearts of mypeople fell to the ground andthey could not lift them upagain. After this, nothinghappened.” Were I ananthropologist, I might havewanted to figure out what hemeant. But as a philosopher,

I wanted to carry out a historically andanthropologically informed thought-experiment: what might he have meant ifhe were not speaking metaphorically, buttrying to stand witness to things ceasingto happen? Here I was influenced by twophilosophers who are not much studiedin the Cambridge curriculum,Kierkegaard and Heidegger. In differentways, each is interested in thephilosophical significance of a figurewilling to take responsibility for a formof life, by articulating what its limitconditions are. Plenty Coups, as Iinterpret him, is saying not merely that itis no longer possible to hunt and battle,but that these activities had ceased to beintelligible ways to live. A young

Jonathan Lear

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Philosophy at Cambridge page 2 May 2008

member of the tribe might get on ahorse, take a bow and arrow and sneakoff the reservation, but it wouldn’tmatter: neither that nor anything elsewould make sense as going into battleor going on a hunt. But then neitherwould anything make sense aspreparing to go into battle or on ahunt. But hitherto everything in Crowlife — all customs and rituals as well asall aspects of daily life — could beunderstood either as going into battleor on a hunt or preparing to do so. Soif there were a moment when all ofthese happenings ceased to make senseas ways to live, and if one were tryingwithin that form of life to stand witnessto its demise, one might well say, “Afterthis, nothing happened.”

This raises a painful, yet challengingquestion for virtue ethics. If we think ofyoung men and women brought up ona traditional understanding of, say,courage, we think of them as beingtrained to face courageously a wholerange of possibilities that life maythrow their way. A capacity for dealingwell with possibilities is instilled withintheir souls. But what if one has to facethe possibility that this range ofpossibilities itself collapses or isdestroyed? How might one facecourageously the collapse of courage asit has been instilled in one’s soul fromearly youth? One might say that thereare no virtues other than as they appearin particular cultural embeddings, andthus that there is no way virtuously toface the collapse of virtue. But anothercourse, which I favor, is to hold that thecultural embeddings of the virtues canpoint beyond themselves – not

necessarily to a transcendent Platonicidea, but to imaginative and virtuousways of going on that transcend theparticular embedding from which theyarose. Anyone who would like to bringPlatonic or Aristotelian-inspired ethicsinto the twenty-first century ought tobe thinking about how this is possible.

I call hope radical when onemaintains it through a period in whichone lacks the concepts to know what tohope for. It is a period in which, onemight say, a form of life is itself inabeyance. This is one way in whichhumans can embrace their finitecondition: acknowledging that theirform of life’s conception of the goodmight not exhaust the subject. Howthis is possible is a fascinatingpsychological story which givesimagination a crucial role in ethical life.How it might differ from reprehensibleforms of collaboration and acceptanceis a crucial moral issue. And, moregenerally, what might legitimate it is ina tradition of questions about thestanding of hope that works its wayback through Kant to Plato.

Ironically, the Crow themselvesstarted reading Radical Hope and I wasinvited to the reservation, to Little BigHorn College, to talk to faculty andstudents about it. My visits have beenmoving in many ways, but whatfascinates me is that what students andfaculty want to talk about isphilosophy. They are pleased I am notthere to study them, but to talk withthem. And what they want to talkabout is an analogy I made betweenSocrates’ daimon — who gives nopositive advice — and the figure of the

Chickadee, an ideal in Crow culture oflearning from the wisdom of others,while leaving it entirely open whatcounts as wisdom and who are theothers who have it. Imagine spendingan afternoon discussing Republic 505ewith Crow who feel they know fromvivid experience what it is like to betrying to aim one’s life towards thegood, while only having the dimmestglimmer of what that good couldpossibly be. It is not that the Crowwant to assimilate to western culture,but they do want to have aconversation with it. They are veryproud of being Crow; but also proudthat their experience might fit into alarger conversation. Above all, they donot want the current fashion foridentity politics to isolate them fromthat conversation. The idea that simplyby studying Plato they might be subjectto cultural hegemony, they findpatronizing.

My studies in Cambridge, first as astudent, then as a Lecturer in thePhilosophy Faculty have been the sinequa non for everything that has comesince. I learned much from myteachers, then colleagues, about how toread and think carefully; but, mostimportantly, I was able to see fromtheir example that philosophy could bea living activity. This is a life-time gift.

Jonathan Lear (Clare) was inCambridge 11 years, between 1970and 1985. He is the John U. NefDistinguished Service Professor at the Committee on Social Thoughtand in the Department of Philosophyat the University of Chicago.

ALUMNI WEEKEND 2008

Saturday 27 September

G.E. Moore: a Lecture and an Exhibition

Speaker: Professor Tom Baldwin, York UniversityLocation and time TBA

For more information please contact Mrs Jenni Lecky-ThompsonFaculty of Philosophy; phone +44 1223 331889;

email: [email protected]

A buffet lunch will be served in the Faculty from 12:30pm to 1:30pm.

Please see Alumni Weekend 2008 booklet for details about booking and cost.

FESTIVAL OF IDEAS IN ARTS, HUMANITIES ANDSOCIAL SCIENCES

22 October — 2 November 2008

Baroness Onora O’ Neill, President of the British Academy, Honorary Professor of

Ethical and Political Philosophy, formerly Principal and now Honorary Fellow of Newnham College, willdeliver a lecture on ‘Conceptions of Press Freedom’ on

Wednesday 22 October 2008. Location TBA

THIRD ROUTLEDGE LECTURE

Thursday 30 October 2008

Professor Richard Moran, the Brian D. Young Professor ofPhilosophy at Harvard University, will deliver the third

Routledge Lecture. Title and location TBA

Further details about these lectures will be available on the Facultywebsite: http://www.phil.cam.ac.uk

Future Events

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Philosophy at Cambridge page 3 May 2008

In September 2007, as part of the University’s Alumni Weekend,the Faculty mounted an exhibition charting the history ofphilosophy in Cambridge. We began with Henry Sidgwick, atthe time that the board which regulated study in the MoralSciences was evolving into something similar to the Facultytoday. We traced the story through Hegelian idealism,represented by McTaggart, and its overthrow by Russell, Mooreand Wittgenstein, who between them made Cambridge thecentre of Anglophone philosophy. The inter-war years wererepresented by Broad, Braithwaite and Wisdom. Wittgenstein’sinfluence was marked by his three successors as Professor—vonWright, Wisdom, and Elizabeth Anscombe—with Braithwaiteand Lewy as the healthy dissenters. We concluded the exhibitionwith Anscombe and Bernard Williams, two of the mostimportant philosophers of the second half of the 20th century.

We wanted to recognise that the influence of Cambridgephilosophers has not been limited to academic philosophy.Frank Ramsey wrote some of the finest philosophy inCambridge, but also produced important work in mathematicsand economics. John Maynard Keynes also went on toeconomics, revolutionising it both in theory and in practice. Alittle later, Alan Turing took his results in mathematical logic

Philosophy at Cambridge through the YearsBen Colburn

Minutes of the MSC from the famous Poker meeting

A section of the exhibition in the Casimir Lewy Library

and laid the foundations for the modernscience of computing.

There is an extraordinary amount ofmaterial concerning the history ofphilosophy in Cambridge, only afraction of which we ended up using.Some exhibits were rather famous, e.g.the minutes of the Moral Sciences Clubmeeting in which Wittgenstein andPopper had an altercation involving apoker. Others have remained buried invarious Cambridge archives for decades.How many people, I wonder, have seenMoore’s comments on Keynes’undergraduate essay onconsequentialism? (Moore wrote inirritable red pencil, ‘You have missed themain point!’) Visitors to the exhibitionwere especially delighted by an exchangeof letters between Lewy andBraithwaite, in which Braithwaite wrotea letter which so incensed his colleaguethat Lewy scribbled annotations in themargin: ‘Oh!’ ‘Oh!’ ‘Confusion!’ and soon. Braithwaite later admitted ‘Myremark … was blague — to get a riseout of you!’ Such treasures from thevaults — and Patricia Williams’generosity in lending us some items fromBernard Williams — brought thepersonal history of the Faculty to life,and allowed us to celebrate not only thegreat philosophical work that has beendone in Cambridge, but also the greatphilosophical characters who have doneit.

Ben ColburnTemporary Lecturer in Philosophy

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Philosophy at Cambridge page 4 May 2008

it wasn’t what I fundamentallywanted to do. In the interveningyears I did try to keep up withphilosophy through reading, butthere’s no substitute for realphilosophical dialogue, and I missedthat. So here I am – I hope it’s thefirst stage in a career change.

In some ways it’s hard to imagine amore drastic change in a workinglife. People sometimes talk about a“real” world outside the life ofstudy, but this is work too ofcourse, like my previous life, andsometimes it’s just as stressful andbusy. There are deadlines andpressures here too, and there is (Ihope) going to be a finished productat the end of it. I was reallysurprised to find out how badly Imanaged my time when I didn’thave clients phoning up to ask if I’ddone this or that.

Of course there were somedifficulties: philosophical skills getrusty no matter how interested in thesubject you are. It can take a while toget up to speed if you’ve been out offormal education for a while. Legalwork tends to be a series of focused,self-contained tasks, but trying tograpple with a philosophical problemin a sustained way needs a differentkind of focus. Philosophicalproblems are not like otherproblems…!

Cambridge is a great place to bestudying philosophy. Am I glad Imade the change? Certainly.

Lewis Evans, PhD student in theFaculty of Philosophy

I used to be a commercial lawyerworking for a large City firm. WhenI decided to go back to studyingphilosophy I was coming towardsthe end of a two year stint in thefirm’s very hectic Tokyo office. I’mnow in my third year of study for aPhD in philosophy here atCambridge, supervised by Jane Heal.Maybe some people drift into doinga PhD while they work out whatthey “really” want to do, but thatwasn’t the case with me. It wasn’t adecision taken lightly. So why did Imake the change? My first degreewas in philosophy and I’ve alwaysfound the subject compelling andfascinating, especially problemscentred around the self — What isit? Is it real? — which are what I’mworking on here. Although I did alaw conversion course, and went onto work as a lawyer, I supposephilosophy never really lost its gripon me and I was always curious toknow how it might have turned outif I’d carried on with it. My legalwork was often very interesting too,with a buzz driven by adrenaline alot of the time, but I came to realise

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From Law tLewis Evans

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Philosophy at Cambridge page 5 May 2008

We were honeymooning on the Playadel Carmen when we decided. “Let’snot go back.” “OK.” “Seriously.” “Yesseriously.” “Seriously?” Like everyoneelse, we went back. But a few weekslater we quit for real.

Tammy and I were lawyers in thesame office on 53rd Street, specialisingin structured finance. The work waschallenging and (usually) interesting,and delightfully well paid, and all-consuming. (The great thing about anoffice romance in New York is thatyou actually see each other.) It wasn’t abad life, but you have to live andbreathe it, and we realised onhoneymoon that we really didn’t wantto look back from our deathbeds onlives spent helping rich people getslightly richer. (Or as it’s turned out,since our firm was heavily involved inUS mortgage securitisations, ratherpoorer.) And we wanted to know ourchildren.

So Tammy moved into internationalpublic health, and, ten years after myBA, I was going back to philosophy.But not before a three-month dreamtrip around the world.

Getting back to university was easierthan I’d feared. I called an old teacher,expecting “Who?” but getting anencouraging “Good!”. A couple ofpeople remembered me well enough togive references. My undergraduatephilosophy essays being both ten years

old and well lost, I manufactured writingsamples in a series of Asian hotel rooms.

Getting back into philosophy washarder. Lawyering had kept myanalytical skills alive, and to my relief Istill found the material absorbing. ButI’d forgotten much more than I’drealised, and my “insights” often turnedout to be obvious errors, or old news.The field has moved on. And somethings are just done differently inphlegmatic English climes. For example,the Canberra Plan metaphysics thatseemed so cutting-edge in New Zealandin the early 1990’s has come to lookrather battle-weary. Great thanks are dueto my supervisors, who went wellbeyond their statutory duties to nurse methrough the MPhil and onto the PhD.

Social life was also a concern. I wasgoing to be a very mature student, twicethe age of the average first-year. But Iwas more worried about the age gapthan anyone else was, and our little boynow has a collection of twenty-something “uncles” and future pianoteachers.

So was it a good decision? Ask meagain in a couple of years. Getting a jobin philosophy is tough, and this couldyet turn out to be just a very longhoneymoon. But so far both Tammy andI have enjoyed our new lives, and even ifI end up back in tax law, I’ll be glad I didit.

Adrian Boutel, PhD student in theFaculty of Philosophy

Philosophy from Cambridge – all your questions answered!

www.cambridge.org

An Introduction to the Philosophy of Language

By Michael Morris

The Logic of Real Arguments (2nd Edition)

By Alec Fisher

Explaining Social Behaviour – More Nuts and Bolts for the Social Sciences

By Jon Elster

Nietzsche’s Philosophy of Religion

By Julian Young

Adrian Boutel with his son Skander

o PhilosophyAdrian Boutel

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Philosophy at Cambridge page 6 May 2008

In the catalogue of my solo exhibitionRoadMovies, at EdinburghUniversity’s Talbot Rice Art Gallery,in 2002, I suggested that my art wasthe ‘pursuit of philosophy by othermeans’. That sums up happily enoughthe influence reading Moral Scienceshas had on my creative life.

At school ‘creative life’ had consistedmainly of writing music — poor organfugues, crass concertos — whosequality was less vital than the valvemusic provided. My hope to do a PhDunder Ross Harrison, comparing thelinguistics of music-language andword-language, was scuttled by mylazy performance in Part II. In themeantime, however, I had met DavidHockney and followed his suggestionthat I should paint and draw. He is awordful, thoughtful artist, in a verbaltradition (too little heeded) thatincludes most spectacularly the vanGogh of the Letters, a tradition thatcannot divorce visual art from acertain philosophical urgency, invokingin particular moral thought but alsoincluding epistemological curiosity.

This is neither hard-core Quine orsoft-porn Bergson, but more akin tothe spiritual challenge represented forme most of all by the Wittgensteinwho writes both pertinently andevocatively: ‘How can one learn thetruth by thinking? As one learns tosee a face better if one draws it.’(Zettel, 255) Wittgenstein’s ferreting“method” — wrestling with trails ofthought such as the ‘field of vision’ —hails from Nietzsche at least andneither author is ever far from mydesk or bed. But the same methodalso characterises the Cubistrationale, if only because we, thingsand mutual parameters are all in time,and shift.

For representational artists in thelast hundred years this is thecompelling truth and challenge. So,when it was suggested to me a coupleof years ago that I do a set of Stationsof the Cross for a church in London,a to-and-fro discussion with theparish priest about Nietzsche’sepistemology blended with the spatialthinkings of my RoadMovies and,

aided by a bottle of Bowmore, led meto the idea of doing these not as viewsof Jesus, a bearded chap over yonderbent double lugging His log, but as ifwe see what He would be seeing. Thisversion, ‘as from the eyes of Jesus’,serves to create a theologicalprecedent — be that a time-bomb ornot — in that it suggests somethingpre-textual, ‘pre-church’, not anofficial vision of How You Are To SeeHim, but an inquisitive and intimatevision of What If You Were He? Thisis a shift of textual perspective at oncesimple and sudden and perhaps, in aworld dangerously polarised by texts,potently textless...

Jonathon Brown read MoralSciences at Pembroke (1974–78).His book I Don’t Know MuchAbout Art But I Know DavidHockney was published in 2007 andhis gift of a painting to the Facultywill be unveiled at the AlumniWeekend in September 2008. Hiswebsite is at www.villaparasol.com.

Nietzsche's Walk, Eze-Village to Eze-Bord-de-Mer, oil crayon, graphite & ink on paper; 2008; © Jonathan Brown

Part I, Part II, Part Yonder...Jonathon Brown

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Philosophy at Cambridge page 7 May 2008

The Moral Sciences ClubBarbara Kay

The meeting of the Moral SciencesClub — but the science was singularin my day — as depicted in the thirdissue of the Newsletter, inspired meto visit the attic in search of theProgramme Cards for the academicyear 1943–44, when as BarbaraHopkins I was the Club’s honorarysecretary. What I write now is basedon these cards, on my scantmemories, and the additional archivematerial sent to me by ProfessorHeal.

I find it difficult to write about theMoral Sciences Club without referenceto the Faculty in general during thewartime years. Most undergraduateswere conscripted or drafted into work‘of national importance’ before theend of their course. Thus, the Facultywas very small, so that the teachingstaff, together with the postgraduatestudents, appeared at times tooutnumber the undergraduates. As Irecall, the Faculty had noheadquarters of its own apart from thelibrary, so that the lectures, orchallenging conversations as theyoften were, sometimes withrefreshments in the shape of tea servedin soup-bowls, took place in thelecturers’ own rooms. This engendereda spirit of informality, which wasentirely lacking in the experience ofmy college friends who belonged tothe larger and more popular faculties.I never set foot in the Mill Lane lecturerooms, since I chose the Psychologyoption for Part II of the Tripos and thelectures took place in the separatePsychology Laboratory, in whichresearch on behalf of the armedservices also took place.

In retrospect, I feel that some ofthe teaching was decidedly eccentric,and this applies also to some of thestaff and students, about whommany interesting rumours werecirculated.

To revert to the Moral ScienceClub, although the Faculty was solimited in number, the list of those towhom Programme Cards were sent isimpressive, and reflects the fact thatsome of the London Colleges, such asBedford and the LSE, were evacuatedto Cambridge during the war. The listincludes eminent names from theperiod such as Thouless, Mace, vonHayek, and Stebbings as well as someof their students. There were alsosporadic attendances from thetheological colleges such as RidleyHall.

During my year in office, ProfessorBroad was President. The Chairman,Professor Wittgenstein, I saw butonce and was never formallyintroduced to him, althoughTractatus Logico-Philosophicus,without which no philosophy studentcould expect to be taken seriously,spent many years on my bookshelves.I missed the curious incident of thered-hot poker by two or three years.

My predecessor as Secretary wasMargaret Milbanke, the first personin Cambridge to welcome me into theFaculty. She later became aneducational psychologist in NorthYorkshire, when we renewed afriendship that lasted for the rest ofher life.

There were sixteen meetings duringthe academic year of 1942–43, andtwelve in the year 1943–44. Threewere joint meetings with theAristotelian Society, and two were‘starred’ meetings at which a paperwas read by an undergraduate andwas open to all members ‘exceptprofessors and lecturers’. They wereusually chaired by RichardBraithwaite, and held in his rooms atKing’s. The speakers were drawn fromthe resident staff, from the pool ofLondon evacuees, and from outsidevisitors, although because of restrictedtravel in wartime, there were perhapsfewer of these than would be expectedtoday. The subjects ranged from thestraightforward (MacKinnon onKant’s Theory of Truth) to the morecontroversial (Wisdom on MustPhilosophers Disagree?), to somemore wide-ranging (von Hayek on theFacts of the Social Sciences), and someplain incomprehensible (Maxwell onDoes Modern Deontology rest on aMistake?). For planning of the year’sprogramme, I relied on the help andguidance of Casimir Lewy, whosememory I invoke with gratitude andwithout whom there would have beenno programme at all.

When I was in office, the annualsubscription was three shillings andsixpence, but at the AGM it was foundnecessary to impose an additionalcharge of one shilling in order tobalance the books. At this point I mustacknowledge the kindly interventionof Professor Broad, who insisted onmy collecting the money withoutdelay. The main expenditure was onprinting the programme cards (fourpounds and two shillings) and postage(fifteen shillings and two pence).

My memories of the actualmeetings, and their content, are veryfaint. My predecessor wrote excellentsummaries of the papers; my ownminutes are sparse. Nonetheless, I amproud to have played a part in what Iknow to be a prestigious institution,and even more, to have belonged to aFaculty whose size made contactbetween its members so much moreinformal than was possible in largerFaculties. Where else could one of thelecturers (who happened also to beone of the examiners) have written toan ‘anonymous’ candidate that hehad ‘enjoyed reading yourexamination papers’, and anotherlecturer have sent a postcard sayingthat ‘I think you are pleased with theresult. I am’. And Casimir Lewy,addressing me as Miss Hopkins in themanner of the era, wrote me apostcard hoping that ‘you won’t findPsychology too boring’. I didn’t!

Barbara Kay read Moral Sciences atNewnham (1941–44)

Faculty NewsThis year the Faculty welcomedBen Colburn and Karen Nielsen astemporary lecturers. RaymondGeuss was promoted to a personalChair.

Several of our graduate studentshave been appointed to academicjobs. Among them, Ben Colburnwill be Research Fellow at CorpusChristi, Cambridge; FlorianSteinberger will be Research Fellowat Queens’, Cambridge; NeilSinclair has secured a lectureship atNottingham University andKatherine Harloe one at ReadingUniversity.

Tim Button has been awarded aKennedy Scholarship to study atHarvard University next year.

Last August Simon Blackburngave the Gavin David Younglectures at the University ofAdelaide in Australia. He also gavethe Hägerström lectures in Uppsalaand in May he will give the addressat the Annual Balzan Symposiumin Lugano.

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Philosophy at Cambridge page 8 May 2008

Prin

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The Images of TimeAn Essay on Temporal RepresentationROBIN LE POIDEVIN

The Images of Time is a philosophical investigation of the natureof time and the mind's ways of representing it. Robin LePoidevin examines the ways in which we perceive time and

change, the means by which memory links us with the past, the attempt torepresent change and movement in art, and the nature of fictional time.

Hardback | September 2007 | 210 pages | 978-0-19-926589-3 | £27.50

PHILOSOPHY FROM OXFORD

The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary PhilosophyEdited by FRANK JACKSON and MICHAEL SMITH

The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Philosophy is thedefinitive guide to what's going on in this lively and fascinating subject. Jackson and Smith, themselves two of the

world's most eminent philosophers, have assembled more than thirty distin-guished scholars to contribute incisive and up-to-date critical surveys of theprincipal areas of research.

Paperback | November 2007 | 920 pages | 978-0-19-923476-9 | £27.50

124-hour credit card hotline +44 (0)1536 454534www.oup.com

On Human RightsJAMES GRIFFIN

What is a human right? How can we tell whether a proposedhuman right really is one? How do we establish the content ofparticular human rights, and how do we resolve conflictsbetween them? These are pressing questions for philosophers,

political theorists, jurisprudents, international lawyers, and activists. JamesGriffin offers answers in his compelling new investigation of human rights.

Hardback | February 2008 | 360 pages| 978-0-19-923878-1 | £25.00

New in Paperback

THE ROUTLEDGE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PHILOSOPHY ONLINE

www.rep,routledge.com

With its easy, intuitive user environment and special resources for users at all levels, REP Online is a living and truly authoritative work that enriches the studies of academics, students and general readersworldwide.

NEW in 2008! REP will move to a new platform, providing more advanced search Automony software, a timeline of philosophy, and much more

'...REP Online is sure to dazzle... Highly recommended for academic and medium to large public libraries.'- Christopher Holly, Library Journal

For free trials, pricing information and to subscribe please contact: UK & Rest of World Customers: Tel: +44(0) 20 7017 6062 Email: [email protected]

From the EditorI have been delighted with the responses, comments andsuggestions, which I have received from many readers.Please keep them coming.

I wish Jenni Lecky-Thompson every success withediting the Newsletter.

Mariella Pellegrino

Please contact:

Mrs Jenni Lecky-ThompsonFaculty of PhilosophyUniversity of CambridgeSidgwick AvenueCambridgeCB3 9DAU.K.

Phone: +44 1223 331889Fax: +44 1223 335091email: [email protected]

A downloadable version of the Newsletter is availablefrom the Faculty website:http://www.phil.cam.ac.uk/

Philosophy journals from Cambridge University PressNew to Cambridge in 2008

Think: Philosophy for Everyone, a publication of the Royal Institute of Philosophy, publishes highly accessible and engaging writing by philosophers pre-eminent in their fields.journals.cambridge.org/thi

The Review of Symbolic Logic a publication of the Association of Symbolic Logic will publish Volume1 Issues 1 and 2 mid-2008.journals.cambridge.org/rsl

Other journals which may also be of interest include:

PhilosophyReligious StudiesSocial Philosophy and PolicyEconomics and Philosophy

Utilitas Arabic Sciences and PhilosophyLegal Theory Social Policy and Society

To view a sample copy of any of these journals please visit journals.cambridge.org/philosophy

Subscriptions can be taken out at [email protected] + 44 (0)1223 326070 or fax +44 (0)1223 325150