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Editorial Note, The Philosophical Quarterly, Volume 71, Issue 3, July 2021, pqab042, https://doi.org/10.1093/pq/pqab042
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Katherine Hawley
1971–2021
Philosophers in Scotland and round the world are mourning the tragically early death of our beloved colleague, Katherine Hawley. It was in 1999 that Katherine joined the St Andrews Department of Logic and Metaphysics (later merged into a single department with Moral Philosophy). In due course she served St Andrews as Head of the School of Philosophy, Anthropology, and Film Studies; as the School's Director of Equality and Diversity; and as Philosophy Director of Research. She also served on the national REF panel for philosophy. Katherine's outstanding intellectual achievements were recognized as such by fellowships of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (2016) and the British Academy (2020). She made her early mark in metaphysics, with important contributions on temporal persistence and mereology. In more recent years she pioneered what has turned out to be the enormously fertile philosophical study of the ethics and pragmatics of trust. A totally unpretentious person, Katherine wore her achievements lightly. She was a fine teacher, a most generous colleague, a brilliant role-model for academic and professional women, and an outstanding leader and communicator. (Her little book Trust in the Oxford University Press series ‘Very Short Introductions’ is an absolute gem of clarity and a paradigm of how philosophical communication can be both simple and profound.) Katherine was closely involved with The Philosophical Quarterly, chairing the Editorial Board from 2005 to 2010. In her many contributions to the multi-dimensional life of philosophy she was a shining light of fairness and human intelligence. She is and will be sorely missed.
