Aileen Kavanagh remembers Joseph Raz
"I was supervised by Joseph Raz in the late 90's. I remember him, above all, as a kind, gentle, considerate, humble, thoughtful man with a deep sense of fairness and integrity, a large sense of humanity and compassion - and a mischievous sense of humour.
To be supervised by Joseph was a privilege and an honour. But it was also an academic boot camp like no other. In our first meeting to discuss a paper I had written, he spent almost two hours detailing the problems on the first page - of a 30-page paper. But he then took me out for lunch and we chatted about life in general. By giving me his focused attention and formidable criticism, I got the education of a lifetime from one of the most brilliant and influential philosophers of the 20th and 21st century. I have never taken that for granted and treasure it to this day.
When I was doing my doctorate, I was one of maybe 15 other students doing doctorates with Joseph across a staggeringly broad range of topics in legal, political and moral philosophy, but other topics too, including constitutional law, international relations and contract law theory. We used to meet up to share war-stories, but we also exchanged fond tales about his distinctive mannerisms, his sharp wit, his memorable turns of phrase, and of course, his scathing criticisms. He sometimes hosted parties for us in the front room of his house off the Abingdon Road. He laid out drinks and nibbles, and then enjoyed the party to the full, as did we. After tutorials, he would sometimes take us for lunch to see how we were doing. He cared. He was interested in our general well-being, not just our doctoral dissertations.
Looking back, I can see that he probably didn’t have to supervise as many students as he did. It was a huge amount of work. He could have spent his time swanning around the world giving papers, holding forth, and receiving accolades - living the life of the great philosopher on tour. But he did not think in those self-centred and self-aggrandising terms. He saw teaching and supervising as a core part of his role, which he took very seriously. Every term – and I mean, every term - he humbly and dutifully invested significant time, energy, insight, knowledge and whatever tact he could muster, into his students - into us. What a priceless gift - not only to those of us who were lucky enough to have been supervised by him – but to the University of Oxford and, more broadly, to the world of legal, political and moral philosophy. He educated the next generation. He shaped the contemporary landscape of analytical legal theory.
In The Morality of Freedom, Joseph says that a good life depends on having valuable, flourishing relationships, together with satisfaction in one’s work and successful pursuit of one’s goals. By those standards, it seems that Joseph Raz had a good life. In the various discussions with him over the years - especially in New York where I got to know him a bit better - it was always apparent how central Noam and Penny were to his happiness, as were his life-long friends around the world, to whom he remained loyal and committed.
It was an enormous privilege to have been supervised by Joseph Raz, but it was sheer pleasure and joy to have known him and spent time with him.
Professor Aileen Kavanagh, Trinity College Dublin