The Jacobsen Lecture 2025 with Adrian Moore (University of Oxford)

In this lecture I address the question whether philosophy needs to know its history, by comparing and contrasting philosophy with other areas of enquiry.  In particular, I emphasize a feature of philosophy that distinguishes it from every other area of enquiry, namely that its history can be a significant contribution to it.  That already points towards a positive answer to the question, although the answer takes some teasing out and towards the end of the lecture I distinguish between what follows from this answer concerning philosophy as a discipline and what follows from it concerning the practice of individual philosophers.  In between I explore two factors that give philosophy this distinctive relation to its history: what I call Self-Consciousness and what I call Appropriation.  By Self-Consciousness I mean the fact that the nature of philosophy is itself a philosophical issue; by Appropriation I mean the fact that, with respect to any great philosophical idea of the past that is no longer viable, there always remains a question about what we can do with it. 
 

Adrian Moore is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of the British Academy.  He is joint editor, with Lucy O’Brien, of MIND.  He is also one of the literary executors of Bernard Williams, whose ideas are a focus of much of his lecture.


The Jacobsen Lecture
The Jacobsen Lecture was established in the 1980s following a donation to the University from Mr J. A. B. Jacobsen. Along with the Lecture, Mr Jacobsen also funded the creation of a research fellowship and an essay prize which are all on the subject of philosophy. The Jacobsen trust funds are based at the Institute of Philosophy within the School of Advanced Study. The funds are overseen by the Jacobsen Committee which is comprised of academics from Philosophy Departments across the University of London Colleges. 


Attendance is free of charge but registration is required.