ABSTRACT
When Richard Peters began his outstanding work in philosophy of education the subject barely existed in Britain as a distinct academic and professional area. No philosopher of any distinction had begun to make effective use of contemporary philosophical methods or their exciting achievements for the development of educational ideas and principles. The work being taught in colleges and universities was out of touch with all that was happening in the parent discipline and had become little more than a historical study of the contribution to educational thought of a selection of philosophers, from Plato to Dewey. It was also largely dissociated from contemporary educational policy and practice, there being little by way of any systematic critique of current developments in curricula, teaching methods or the organisation of the school system. But with hindsight one can see that the scene was set for someone with the necessary philosophical expertise, the necessary insight into and understanding of education, and the necessary commitment to the enterprise, to give new life to the subject and to re-characterise philosophy of education as a major intellectual enterprise of practical significance. On the one hand philosophers such as Ryle and Hare were giving very strong leads as to the educational issues raised by their own work. On the other hand the controversy surrounding new educational practices in primary and comprehensive secondary schools was itself throwing up philosophical questions that manifestly required systematic attention. In this situation Richard Peters proved to be the right man in the right place at the right time. He was a first-class philosopher with both the range and depth of philosophical experience required for the task. He was knowledgeable about, and intensely concerned about, the development of education in schools. But he revealed too the personal qualities that made him able to respond to the challenge and devote himself unstintingly to the task in hand. He thereby not only redefined British philosophy of education but set its programme for some twenty years and has been its dominating creative thinker throughout that period.
