ABSTRACT
Since this lecture arises from a personal, not an established Chair, I cannot in all logic follow the common tradition of beginning with appreciative remarks about my predecessor. There is no predecessor! But perhaps, I might be allowed to say a few words about Richard Peters, who was the last holder of the established Chair in Philosophy of Education. It was through Richard’s inspirational qualities as my first teacher of philosophy at Birkbeck College in the early 1960s that I became hooked beyond redemption on the subject. You can imagine my delight when I was appointed to work with Richard at the Institute of Education and collaborate with him in the new and exhilarating task of applying philosophical skills and understanding to clarify some of the murky ideas about education which then dominated the world of teacher education. Since then I consider myself to have been very fortunate, and in several ways. First, to have worked in this Institute with a whole host of stimulating colleagues, all odd hybrids, like myself, too practically concerned to be able to contemplate a purely academic life. The Institute has provided a splendid environment in which to think freely and independently about fundamental educational issues – even, if I may say so, over the last 15 years when national resources for doing so have been increasingly hard to find. When he was Director, Denis Lawton worked fearlessly to keep this tradition alive and we are all very much in his debt for that. I also consider myself very lucky to have known two periods of intense intellectual activity within the history of my own discipline. The first was initiated largely by Richard Peters himself in partnership with Paul Hirst. It consisted in bringing the linguistic and other techniques of post-war philosophy to the study of education. The second – which is still very much in full flow – has been the new interest in normative and applied ethics which has been with us since the late 1970s. This has been immensely fruitful for the philosophy of education, which, thanks to the earlier work of Peters and Hirst, may justly be called the first of the applied philosophies.
