In the 1990s, when I was teaching English and becoming increasingly interested in how people learn, Abbas Hussain, the renowned teacher-trainer from Karachi, introduced me to American psychologist Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences. It was an exciting idea for a teacher: intelligence need not be confined to what conventional examinations happened to measure.

I began reading Gardner, moving from one book to another and, later, followed his writings on the internet. It was through Gardner, rather unexpectedly, that I first encountered British philosopher Anthony Kenny.

In the early 2010s, while following discussion of one of Gardner’s books, I came across comments by Kenny. I knew almost nothing about him. Curiosity led to another article, then another book and, before long, Gardner had inadvertently introduced me to someone who would become one of my favourite writers on philosophy. After Bertrand Russell, few philosophers gave me quite the same pleasure of discovering that difficult questions could be discussed without making the reader feel intellectually inadequate.

Sir Anthony Kenny, who died aged 95 on August 3, 2026, was an unusual philosophical guide. He possessed immense learning without making a performance of it. He could move from Aristotle and St Thomas Aquinas to René Descartes and Ludwig Wittgenstein while maintaining the tone of a patient teacher rather than a guardian of an esoteric profession. His life also gave his philosophy an unusual authority.

A former Catholic priest who became one of Britain’s great philosophers, Sir Anthony Kenny passed away on August 3. He spent his life making philosophy accessible and modelling the rare courage of admitting uncertainty

A former Catholic priest who became one of Britain’s great philosophers, Sir Anthony Kenny passed away on August 3. He spent his life making philosophy accessible and modelling the rare courage of admitting uncertainty

Anthony John Patrick Kenny was born in Liverpool in 1931. His youthful Catholic faith was sufficiently serious for him to train for the priesthood. He studied in Rome, was ordained in 1955 and served as a Roman Catholic priest. But doubts that might have been suppressed by a less intellectually scrupulous man became impossible for him to ignore.

In 1963 he left the priesthood. The former priest........

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