Grice and Dummett

Speranza


Dummett undaunted


From the Guardian:

"I am struck by how many of the obituaries of Sir Michael Dummett (Obituary, 28 December) feel obliged to mention his "irascibility", his "volcanic temper" and similar unlikely metaphors."

"I knew Sir Michael for nearly half a century."

"What I most remember about him as a person is his gentleness and his stern attachment to tolerance."

"It is true that he could indulge in the most un-Oxford-don-like gestures – a quality he inherited no doubt from the one philosopher he admired both as a philosopher and as a human being – GEM ("Elizabeth") Anscombe."

"Just as she had marched up to the dais during an honorary degree presentation in the late 1950s to some American political dignitary (Dean Rusk?) in protest at the US use of nuclear bombs in Japan, there was one occasion when a visiting Conservative MP, Ronald Bell, noted for the virulence and persistence of his racism, was nonplussed when Sir Michael marched up to the platform, tore the microphone from him and delivered an extempore denunciation of Bell's views."

"But on another occasion when I was speaking and explained where I stood on just how far one could tolerate cultural and religious difference, Michael, from the rear of the hall, took issue with me root and branch but without the slightest acrimony."

"We'd always agreed that often the most fruitful (ie productive) disagreements are not those between polar opposites, but between disputants who shared enough in common to understand all that the disagreement implied and excluded."

"That is the Michael Dummett I shall always remember – a philosopher's philosopher, yes, but before everything an intensely human man."

Dipak Nandy, Nottingham

"Although I never met Michael Dummett again after 1965, when I had attended a meeting at his home in Oxford, I could never forget him."

"I was the (unpaid) organising secretary of the Campaign Against Racial Discrimination founded a few months before, and he was a founder of the Oxford Committee for Racial Integration."

"We hit it off immediately, and he told me of his visit to the south of the US, when he witnessed the sheriff and his men using electric cattle prods against black civil rights demonstrators."

"The much praised Alistair Cooke was reporting the confrontation for the Guardian but never seemed to leave his hotel room. Instead, Michael said, Cooke invited not the campaigners but the sheriff to visit him. Michael was not merely annoyed or unhappy to read Cooke's inaccurate accounts, but outraged: a sign of someone deeply anti-racist (when it was far from trendy). Michael complained to the Guardian on his return to England but got little satisfaction."

"Then he was asked to do a talk on philosophy for the Third Programme (now Radio 3), and agreed on condition that he could also give a talk on what really happened in Alabama, which had been inaccurately reported in the British press."

"The producer agreed and Michael got the satisfaction of (belatedly) spilling the beans on the sheriff and on the eminent journalist."

"Truth for Michael was more than a philosophic concept. When comes such another?"

Selma James, London

"Michael Dummett was an uncompromising and effective campaigner for equal rights for immigrants. His involvement in practical anti-racist politics and his recognition that immigration was becoming a focus of racist activity led him to co-found the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants in 1967, which he chaired in 1970-71, the same year he became one of the founding trustees of the associated Immigrants' Aid Trust (IAT). This coincided with the enactment of the foundation stone of modern British immigration laws in the Immigration Act 1971, and Michael remained closely involved in immigration politics his entire life, using his fierce intellect to promote equality for all immigrants."

"In On Immigration and Refugees (2001) Michael synthesised his more abstract philosophical studies with his political work. Until his last illness he remained an active trustee of the IAT. His was a thoughtful and vital presence at trustees' meetings, where he was always ready to alert other trustees to important issues, being particularly exercised about the plight of refugees and Immigration Act detainees, and the importance of migrants and refugees having access to good legal advice. His insights and kindness will be missed."

Alison Stanley, Chair, Immigrants' Aid Trust