OBITUARY : Roy Bhaskar

The iconoclastic British philosopher Roy Bhaskar died of heart failure on 19 November 2014, aged 70. He was a productive scholar, consistently original and interesting, often ahead of his time. His work is, unfortunately, not nearly as influential in contemporary philosophy as it should be. This is at least partially attributable to his career-long disregard for academic convention, a disregard that manifested both practically – for most of his academic life, he did not occupy a full-time position – and intellectually. His early work was situated within the Anglo–American analytic tradition of philosophy, yet he was unwilling to accept the disciplinary specialisation and pinched ambition encouraged by this tradition. His work ranged widely, encompassing the philosophies of science, social science, mind, ethics, politics and spirituality, among other topics.