Dudley Knowles obituary

My colleague, Dudley Knowles, who has died of cancer aged 67, was an influential political philosopher and Hegel scholar. Among his publications, Political Philosophy (2001) remains a widely read textbook. His most important contribution was Hegel and the Philosophy of Right (2002), a study of Elements of the Philosophy of Right, the work in which Hegel sets out most fully his moral and political philosophy.

Dudleys understanding of Hegel arose from a certain temperamental affinity with his underlying liberal-communitarian ethics. Politically, Dudley was a one-nation social democrat long before the idea of one-nation politics was taken up on the left. Emotionally, he was always an old-Labour northerner.