Raymond Plant giving the inaugural Dudley Knowles Memorial Lecture, Glasgow 21 January

On Thursday 21 January we will be holding the first Dudley Knowles memorial Lecture in Political Philosophy, hosted by the Stevenson Committee. The speaker will be Professor Lord Raymond Plant, and he will be speaking on the subject ‘Religious Freedom and Identity in the Liberal State’. Everyone is very welcome. The lecture will be from 6pm to 7.30pm in the Charles Wilson Lecture Theatre (the converted church at the top of Gibson Street, very close to the Philosophy Department), and there will be a drinks reception afterwards. Everyone is very welcome; no need to book in advance.

 

Background

 

Professor Dudley Ross Knowles (1947 – 2014) was a renowned political philosopher who taught at Glasgow University from 1975 to 2012 and was a staunch supporter of the Stevenson Trust.  Dudley insisted that the Trust’s commitment to public education must include the contribution of political philosophy to examining issues of contemporary relevance in a manner accessible to all citizens.  In 2015 the Stevenson committee decided to endorse Professor Knowles’s view by instigating an annual public lecture on political philosophy in his memory.

 

Raymond Plant is currently Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Philosophy at King’s College London and has represented Labour in the House of Lords as Baron Plant of Highfields since 1992.  He was also Professor of Divinity at Gresham College and is a Lay Canon at Winchester Cathedral.  He was previously Master of St Catherine’s College Oxford, Professor of European Political Thought at the University of Southampton and has given prestigious lecture series in Oxford, Cambridge, Dublin, Manchester and Southampton.  He is well known at Glasgow University as one of our most formidable Stevenson Lecturers.

 

Professor Plant has written extensively in political, social and legal philosophy.  His range of published work on the Neo Liberal State reflects and informs his public and political service.  He has been a member of the Nuffield Council on Medical Ethics and served on the Joint Committee on Human Rights for the House of Lords.  He also has contributed to party policy making, for instance,  by chairing reports for the Labour Party on Electoral Reform, and (for the Fabian Society) on Taxation and Citizenship.

 

Raymond Plant and Dudley Knowles share many concerns and interests in applying political philosophy to issues such rights, welfare, political obligation and citizenship.  They are also both leading authorities on Hegel’s political philosophy from whom each draws inspiration.

 

The subject of Professor Plant’s lecture arises from reflections on the subject which began during his period of tenure as Professor at Sciences Po (the Paris Institute of Political Studies).

 

All best wishes,

 

Ben

 

Dr Ben Colburn

Senior Lecturer in Philosophy

School of Humanities

University of Glasgow

67-69 Oakfield Avenue

Glasgow G12 8QQ

+44 (0) 141 330 4277