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Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology 11.1 (2004) vii



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In Memoriam:
Kathy Wilkes

Rom Harré


Everyone in the community of those with a serious interest in the philosophy of psychology will have been deeply saddened by the premature of death of Kathy Wilkes a few weeks ago.

Kathy spent most of her academic life proper as a Fellow and Tutor at St Hilda's, the last remaining bastion of single-sex education in Oxford. She was a devoted teacher and, until her last few years, a presence in the then Philosophy Subfaculty. Her elegant little book on Physicalism, is still available from Amazon.com, after more than 20 years, a tribute to its enduring qualities. Her Real People is already a classic of philosophical psychopathology. Her last major project was the editing of a collection of papers on cognitive psychology with Bill Newton-Smith.

Kathy was among a group of mainly Oxford people who were drawn into an effort to bring analytical philosophy to Eastern Europe, through the half-open door of the International University Centre in Dubrovnik. Although most of us made sporadic visits and scuttled off home when our courses were done, Kathy's involvement was deep and passionate. She stayed through the siege of Dubrovnik, throwing herself into humanitarian efforts without any thought of the consequences for herself. They were indeed serious, and I think it fair to say that she never fully recovered her health from the ordeal.

Kathy was very good at bringing a kind of generous clarity to her philosophical work. This generosity of spirit took her to the re-opening of the Philosophy Summer School in Beijing, again largely an Oxford effort. This was the last time I spent any considerable time in her company, when she was able to bring that intellectual virtue I called generous clarity to inspire all of those teaching in the school.

She was an enthusiast, and her brand of enlightened but skeptical scholarship will be greatly missed.





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