ABSTRACT
A natural ending for Festschriften might well be to offer a listing of the honoured author’s written works or a kind of systematic review of their research. Though such approaches may well serve other collections, for this Festschrift in honour of a good friend and mentor, Douglas Davies, it is decidedly avoided for at least two reasons. First, from a former student’s perspective, Douglas possesses that rare academic charm of being more interested in good ideas than merely having his own ideas parroted back to him. ‘I know what I think’, he would always tell students before essays were due; ‘I want to know your best thoughts’. Moreover, he is a stimulating sounding board and an incredibly fruitful person to ‘think with’ on whatever topic of research one may be currently exploring. His office hours are frequented by students and scholars working in fields ranging from behavioural economics to government, classics to philosophy – all in order to discuss their current research with him. I could not help but think a systematic review of his work would utterly bore – or, worse, insult – the refined tastes of the inquisitive Welshman.
