From John Haldane
Katherine Hawley
In appreciation and in admiration
John Haldane
Katherine was a person of rare distinction: intellectually gifted, hard-working, and highly accomplished; she was also sensitive and compassionate; principled but prudent and pragmatic.
She came to St Andrews from a research fellowship in Cambridge in 1999. At that time there were two Departments: Logic and Metaphysics, and Moral Philosophy and she was the first woman to be appointed on the ‘L&M’ side, and only the second to be appointed to Philosophy more generally, the first being Penelope Palmer, who came to MP in 1967 and sadly, like Katherine died of cancer, at too early an age.
The ascent of Philosophy at St Andrews had begun in the 1980s and it had established an international reputation, but there was still an age imbalance and Katherine’s youthfulness, sophistication and energy contributed much to the further transformation and elevation of the soon to be united Departments.
Metaphysics then was approached via the philosophy of language and logic, and was general in character, and especially focussed on broad debates between realists and anti-realists. With her background in physics and in the philosophy of science her interests and approach were more specific and direct having to do with the individuation, identity, and persistence of material particulars.
Within a few years at St Andrews she had acquired significant service roles: becoming Chair of the Philosophical Quarterly, a panel member of the UK Research Assessment Exercise, and serving as Head of the School of Philosophical, Anthropological and Film Studies from 2009 to 2014. I had been Head of School (prior to the arrival of Film) at the time of her appointment and later was acting Head during her period of service, allowing her to take a sabbatical. The organisational structure at St Andrews focusses on Schools, and Heads of these are budget holders, overall managers, and channels of communication ‘up’ and ‘down’. As such they have responsibilities, challenges and burdens of knowledge and power that are not always appreciated by their colleagues. Katherine faced and carried these with grace and patience: uncomplaining, restrained, and judicious, but also highly efficient and very effective.
Having then recently agreed to join the Executive Committee of the Royal Institute of Philosophy, Katherine wrote to me in Autumn of 2019 to tell me of her cancer diagnosis and to explain that on account of it she would be withdrawing from professional commitments. As it happened, the previous week Roger Scruton had written to tell me of his diagnosis of the same condition saying he was in chemotherapy, and “hoping to achieve remission, but not quite the man I was”. Thinking that even if a trouble shared may not be halved it can yet bring some measure of comfort in solidarity, I mentioned this to Katherine who had not yet begun treatment, and her immediate response was to ask me to “pass along my good wishes to him”.
Both were rightly focussed on the present and on their families, but the burdens of uncertainty and fear, occasionally lightened by hope and happiness are painful even to contemplate. Katherine carried herself in this as she had in all other situations that I knew of, with grace and humility. There is a Roman funerary inscription that quotes a Stoic: “it is foolish to lose joy of life while fearing death at all time. For death is the nature, not the punishment of mankind; whoever happens to be born, therefore also faces to die.” Katherine’s untimely passing is an agonising and aching loss to her family and deeply sad for friends and colleagues, but our memory is of a life lived unfearfully and with strength of character and purpose. Those who had the privilege to share their lives or work with her best honour her by seeking to emulate her good example.