Englishness and the Intelligentsia: Should Philosophers lead good lives?

Is there a more or less national way of being an intellectual? And are the virtues of such a person such as to hold together both the manner of their thought and the conduct of their life? Should we even go so far as to say that only by reenacting the lived context of a life can one claim to understand the thought of the thinker in question?

By detailing the brief and exemplary life of English philosopher R G Collingwood, Fred Inglis will explore the commonly held view that there should be an observable, even unbreakable link between the thoughts of a philosopher and the quality of his or her life, a connection that professional philosophers tend to ridicule. This lecture will defend it vigorously however, and in doing so, seek out those aspects of our culture which seem inseparable from the way of thinking characteristic of English thinkers.

Fred Inglis is Emeritus Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Sheffield. Previously Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Warwick, he has been a member of the School of Social Science at the Institute of Advanced Study, Princeton, and Fellow-in-Residence at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study. He was born in Stockton, County Durham and took his first degree at Cambridge in English Literature, his M Phil at Southampton while a government research fellow there, and his two doctorates were awarded on published work, as being a member of staff at the University of Bristol. He has frequently written for the Nation, the New Statesman and the Independent and contributes regularly to BBC Radio.

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