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Searle on P.F. Strawson

Galen Strawson kindly shared this address John Searle gave at a memorial for Peter Strawson, which includes, among other things, a charming description of tutorials with Strawson:

Early on, Searle writes that while studying at Oxford in 1954-55,

I attended lectures and seminars not only by Peter, but by J L Austin,
Paul Grice, Isaiah Berlin, Stuart Hampshire, Elizabeth Anscombe,
Gilbert Ryle, H H Price, Iris Murdoch, Van Quine (a Visiting
Professor), David Pears, Geoffrey Warnock, Mary Warnock, Friedrich
Waismann, Philippa Foot, Herbert Hart, Michael Dummett, Bernard
Williams, Tony Quinton, R M Hare, and lots of brilliant others. Though
at the time we all took such distinction for granted, and thought Oxford
would go on being great in philosophy forever, in fact it was a rare and
special moment in intellectual history.

That is a pretty impressive moment in the history of Oxford philosophy, although in the late 1970s, one might have also attended lectures and seminars by Strawson, Hare, and Dummett, as well as John McDowell, J.L. Mackie, Gareth Evans, Ronald Dworkin, Charles Taylor, Derek Parfit, Joseph Raz, and other luminaries or soon-to-be luminaries. What is probably true is that Oxford today, while still host to many distinguished philosophers, does not compare to what it was from the 1950s through the early part of this century. Cost of living in Oxford was a significant factor, of course, which affected the school’s ability to attract top international talent to the chairs. Of course, if one starts from as high a peak as Oxford did, one can fall quite far and still be a very attractive place to do philosophy.

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