On the 14 May friends and former colleagues of the late Professor Frank Cioffi came togther at Kent to celebrate the launch of a The Philosopher in Shirt Sleeves, a book dedicated to the life and work of the celebrated philosopher. Written by David Ellis (Emeritus Professor of Literature at the University of Kent) and Nicholas Bunnin (Director of the Philosophy Project at the Institute for Chinese Studies in Oxford and a Visiting Professor of Chinese Philosophy at King’s College) the book ‘provides an elegant and enjoyable tribute to Cioffi as both a man and a philosopher’.
Frank Cioffi was appointed lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Singapore 1956 before coming to the UK in 1965 to become one of the founding lecturers at the then new University of Kent. In 1974, he went on to establish the highly successful Philosophy department at the University of Essex. Retiring from Essex in 1994 he returned Canterbury and was made an honorary research professor at Kent University where he often lectured.
As Peter Hacker has written: ‘The fullest expression of Frank Cioffi’s manifold talents was in the art of conversation – after an hour with Frank, the world seemed more vivid, ideas seemed to dance with life, and laughter echoed even amidst the ruins. In this admirable and charming book, Ellis captures the vibrant qualities of Cioffi’s conversation, his joy in ideas, his perpetual probing and questioning, and his intellectual passion. To those who knew him, this volume will be a treasured memorial – to those who were unacquainted with him, it will be a delightful memoir of a remarkable man.’
Frank Cioffi: The Philosopher in Shirt Sleeves is published by Bloomsbury.