British philosopher Sir Stuart Hampshire has died at the age of 89. The Telegraph has “a very interesting obituary”:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/06/15/db1501.xml&sSheet=/portal/2004/06/15/ixportal.html . I’ll add others to this post as they appear: “Guardian”:http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,3604,1239568,00.html , “Times”:http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,60-1146540,00.html .
{ 6 comments }
Anonymous 06.15.04 at 3:16 pm
According to the obituary, he married Nancy Cartwright in 1985, with whom he had two daughters.
If he died this year at 89, he must have been almost 70 when he married Cartwright.
This man had two children after the age of 70!
Philosophy must keep you healthy.
josh 06.15.04 at 7:51 pm
Sorry to burst your bubble, anonymous; but the children were adoptive.
I’ve got some more information on Hampshire up at my not-quite moribund site, and will be adding more, for those interested in this admirable man and important thinker:
http://j3.blogspot.com
harry 06.15.04 at 10:12 pm
As josh points out in the link he gives, Hampshire was as committed to equality as anyone could be who thought that liberty was more important. The DT obit was rivetting, but misleading on that point, I thought. They’ve won all the battles — they could at least be honest about who our thinkers are/were.
josh 06.15.04 at 11:35 pm
Well, in the Telegraph’s defense, Harry, at least they were pretty nice about Hampshire — their statement, I assume, was meant as a compliment – unlike, say, the Guardian’s nasty and unjust take on Mel Lasky (but that’s another story). But hopefully other obits will emphasise Hampshire’s commitment to socialism more fully.
Kieran Healy 06.16.04 at 12:16 am
We had dinner with Stuart and Nancy at their house a few years ago… he was that sort of modest and urbane Oxbridge type who’s really easy to like. He told some funny stories about a holiday he took in Kerry (in the Southwest of Ireland) with Isaiah Berlin in the 1930s or ’40s.
Zizka 06.16.04 at 3:55 am
A fellow Hussite! I did not know that.
The Hussites invented the tank, you know. Centuries later the Russians taught them to regret this.
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