Brief Encounters

Sir Anthony Kenny FBA was born in Liverpool in 1931, and was educated at Upholland College and the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. From 1963 to 1989 he was at Balliol College, Oxford, first as Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy, and then as Master. He later became Warden of Rhodes House, President of the British Academy and of the Royal Institute of Philosophy, and Chair of the Board of the British Library. He is the author of over forty books on philosophy and history, including OUP’s four-volume New History of Western Philosophy and The Enlightenment: A very brief history (SPCK 2017).

• Contents:1. Three Priests: Alexander Jones, Jack Kennedy, Herbert McCabe 2. Three Cardinals: W.T, Heard, J.C. Heenan, C. Murphy O’Connor 3. Three Anglicans: Austin Farrer, Henry Chadwick, Richard Harries 4 Three Oxford Dons: Christoppher Cox, Russell Meiggs, Richard Cobb 5. Three Heads of House: Christopher Hill, Isaiah Berlin, Daphne Park 6. Three Benefactors: Bill Coolidge, Irwin Miller, David Astor 7. Three Businessmen: Robert Maxwell, Warwick Fairfax, John Templeton 8. Three Oxford Philosophers: Gilbert Ryle, R.M. Hare, Philippa Foot9. Three Wittgensteinians: Elizabeth Anscombe, Peter Geach, G.H. von Wright 10. Three Overseas Philosophers: W.V.Quine, Ernst Tugendhat, Jacques Derrida11. Three Prime Ministers: Harold Macmillan, Ted Heath, Margaret Thatcher 12. Three British Statesmen: Denis Healey, Roy Jenkins, Chris Patten 13. Three Privy Councillors: Peter Brooke, Boris Johnson, Yvette Cooper14. Three Heads of State: King Olav V, Francesco Cossiga, Bill Clinton15. Three Judges: Jim Kilbrandon, Tom Bingham, Laurie Ackermann16. Three Dissidents: Ivan Supek, Mihailo Marcovich, Julius Tomin17. Three Irish Leaders: Charlie Haughey, Garret FitzGerald, Mary Robinson18. Three South African Leaders: Desmond Tutu, Mampela Ramphele, Nelson Mandela19. Three Novelists: Graham Greene, Iris Murdoch, David Lodge20. Three Scientists: Noam Chomsky, Richard Dawkins, Denis Noble

From the reviews of A Brief History of Western Philosophy: 'Kenny's style is unpretentious, effective, and at times wonderfully informal and amiable.'', Review of Metaphysics