Reporter 3/7/02: Congregation of the Regent House on 24 June 2002

A Congregation of the Regent House was held this day at 11.25 a.m. The Chancellor was present.

Processions formed in the Schools Arcade at 11.20 a.m., passed round the Senate-House Yard, and entered the Senate-House by the South Door and the East Door.

Music was performed at the Congregation by the Choirs of King's College and St John's College, and by the King's Trumpeters.

Professor Emerita of the Philosophy of Science, Honorary Fellow of Wolfson College

Principal Scientist of Cancer Research UK, Honorary Fellow of Clare College, Nobel Laureate 2001

Monroe Deutsch Professor of Philosophy in the University of California, Berkeley, Fellow and formerly Provost of King's College, and formerly Knightbridge Professor of Philosophy

The Orator delivered the following speeches when presenting to The Chancellor the recipients of Honorary Degrees:

HIC uir cum ad summum iuris honorem accessit, collega Istum ait amamus omnes. quid plura? consentiunt enim etiam ii, amplissimae dignitatis uiri, qui sunt ab eo castigati. sed uir tam late laudatus quaeramus altius cur tanta approbatione celebretur.

iuris studio tenetur a puero, sed cursus forensis ei singularis est: etiam dum stipendia meretur tralatus ut iuri militari emendando adesset paucis modo mensibus ea scelera cognouerat quae uix docuissent alibi anni multi. tum commendatus in id munus quod diaboli aerari uocitatur causas pro praetore dicebat, sed eo saepe iudice qui ipse uir clarissimus admodumque popularis praetorem plerumque damnabat. at tum primum creabatur illud ius quod ex eo tempore hic maxime dicit, quo quid praetoribus placeat, ne lege lata aut peruorse aut contra senatus uoluntatem utantur, id referatur ad iudices. in libro autem ius illud quo liceat extendi cum latius recenset tum uestigat eius principia quibus sit optime constitutum diuque permaneat: non enim bene ius augeri si tantum in sententiis dicendis patefiat quid uelit, sed plurimum ualere eorum interpretationes quibus iuris est munus proprium scholis explicare rationes.

quaestionem autem de carceribus uiolatis, habuit alteramque de adeundo cuilibet in ius; hoc ubi carius tardius iniquius quam ut toleraretur nuntiauit geri, constitit inter eos qui rem gerunt omnem renouandam esse rationem. sunt qui suspicentur eum popularem existimari uelle; leges tamen ipse dixit ita se uelle renouari ut et ciuibus prosint et mos maiorum uoluntasque seruentur.

praesento uobis uirum admodum Honorabilem, Angliae et Walliae Iusticiarium Summum, Baronem de Barnes

HARRY KENNETH WOOLF

WHEN Lord Woolf became Lord Chief Justice, a fellow judge said of him, 'We all love Harry'. That is commendation enough, you may think, especially when endorsed by distinguished figures who have been on the wrong end of his judgments. We must investigate a little further, however, why he receives such praise and approbation.

His interest in the law was fixed early, but his legal career has not been conventional. Soon after starting national service he was transferred to help with a revision of military law, and gained in a matter of months an experience of criminality which might otherwise have taken years. Later he became Treasury Devil, as the role is known: the Treasury Devil appears for the Attorney General. Lord Woolf's appearances were often before Lord Denning, a man with a famous concern for the rights of the ordinary citizen; the Attorney General was frequently declared to be in the wrong. Yet that was the time when the law that is this man's special interest was being developed, judicial review of administrative action - or preventing the government from misinterpreting the law as laid down or from using its powers in a way unintended by parliament. Lord Woolf is co-author of the definitive volume on the subject; he works at the principles which underlie the law, to ensure that it is soundly founded. A law, he observes, is not well developed if its meaning is revealed only in judgments of the court; he attributes great value to the work of interpretation done by those in university faculties of law and in other legal institutions.

He conducted an inquiry into prison disturbances, and another into civil procedure called 'Access to Justice', in which he reported that access was too expensive, too slow and too unequal; the government agreed a wholesale revision. Some suspect that he is happy to be thought a radical; he has said that for him, any legal reform must both serve the interest of the citizen and preserve the traditional intent of the law.

The Rt Hon. HARRY KENNETH, Baron WOOLF of BARNES,

TEMPUS erat multos peregrino litore natoshaec ubi discipulos academia nostra solebatin studia annorum spatium praebere duorum;gaudia cum fructu uel commoda non sine ludoutra putes memoranda magis contingere tandem?femina adest quam nunc iterum saluere iubemusfiat ut alterius lauri cum laude receptrix.

et Vniuersitatis huic et collegi increuit cum studiis amor, studebatque tunc duce Betty Behrens, quam honoris causa nomino; studiis hic confectis domum regressa ipsa XX annos in collegio Goucher nuncupato docebat, deinde praeses collegi facta XX rursus annos non modo eius res sed etiam alienas, quas enumerare quot qualesque fuerint non sufficiat tempus, omnis perite urbane acute gerebat: adeo artem administrandi florere in ea innotuerat.

inter sodalitates quibus se dedidit una erat Amicorum Americanorum Vniuersitatis Cantabrigiensis appellata; sed tantus in istis exercendae pietatis est amor ut altera (cui obsecrauerat Procancellarius ut haec insuper praesideret) ad id temporis augeretur - nec uero omnino illud mirum, cum recordemur opes fautorum fautricumque nostrarum quam diuerse aut in tantum collegiorum numerum aut in tantam studiorum multitudinem extendi possint. paulatim tamen apparere coeperat quanto commodius ab uno fonte liberalitatis illa flumina ducerentur. simul autem apparuit quantum ualerent in illo opere huius feminae ars acumen urbanitas. quo munere libenter suscepto fortiter functa ditissimo euentu confecto tum se abdicauit, rursusque aratro suo, ut ita dicam, imponit manum. nunc decet gratias meritas agamus quod haec nobis opus tam graue tanta pietate perfecit.

praesento uobis Magistram in Artibus, Vniuersitatis Amicorum Americanorum olim Consiliariam, Collegi Newnhamensis Alumnam

RHODA MARY DORSEY

TIME was when many students from overseas would take two years at Cambridge on a Part II course. Is it the times of good study that stay in the mind in the long run, or is it the times of fun between? This lady is one to whom we bid a second welcome, so that she may receive a second set of laurels with distinction.

In her time she came to love both the University and her College, where her mentor was Betty Behrens, a name to honour. When Rhoda Dorsey's studies here were done, she went back to the States and taught for twenty years at Goucher College; then for twenty years she was its President, and managed not only its affairs but the affairs of other bodies and institutions more numerous than there is time to recount, and all of them with great skill, tact and judgement, so well known had her powers of administration become.

Among the bodies to which she gave her time was one called the American Friends of Cambridge University; but the devotion of our American friends was enough to sustain a second such body, which she also chaired, at the particular entreaty of the Vice-Chancellor. The existence of two bodies is not entirely surprising when we remember how diversely the benefactions of our supporters can be directed, whether to our numerous colleges or to our many different academic fields. Little by little, however, it began to be clear how much more advantageously those streams of generosity could refresh this place if they came from a single fountain. At the same time it was clear how valuable in achieving that aim this lady's powers of gentle persuasion could be. She took up the task with good humour, she performed it with courage, and when, after remarkable success, it was done, she laid it down and returned to her other avocations. Now is a good time for us to thank her as she deserves for taking on so difficult a task and for fulfilling it with such devotion.

RHODA MARY DORSEY, M.A.,

SUNT fortasse quibus sapiens si quaerere pergitrerum naturae causas et fortiter extraprocessit longe flammantia moenia mundiqualibet utatur ratione in re peragenda,dummodo lucidior quaesita appareat omnires et mens hominum sic certior ingrediaturad noua. sed quid si ratio rationis abessetillius qua rem sapiens uestigat? habendanulla hominist ratio nisi uestigatur et ipsa:quare opus est nobis ut sit ratio rationumcausaque causarum quae iusta sit adque probata.

ecquis aptior ad has res perquirendas, ecquis melior hac femina? quae primo mathematicae studuit, deinde in opticen conuersa tum quaesiuit quid ualerent in physicae philosophia notiones legesque rationales. nam physici ita ratiocinari solebant, usum plerumque uel ex euentu probari uel ex eo quod ad noua posset accommodari; sed haec, cum diligentius ratiocinandum censeret, libris libellisque suis ultra processit, quorum notissimos forsitan audiueritis, Thucydidea quadam orationis adhibita ui de exemplaribus comparationibusque inferendis, de formis colligendorum, de rebus nouandis restituendisque conscriptos.

inde quid aliud quam ut ad ipsa uerba quibus utuntur philosophi aliquando adiretur? linguam dicit rem mobilem esse, nec propriam et sempiternam inesse in quoquam uerbo significationem, sed e priore in nouum usum translatam ita paulo mutari, eaque translatione rursus addi priori aliquid; sed non aliter comprehendi noua posse; tum patuit oculis his acutissimis omnium studiorum inuestigatio, qualis uerborum ratio in eis informandis afferretur; neque ipsa effugit Vniuersitas quin stimulis huius dum consiliaria est acceptis mutationem aliquam expediret sui.

praesento uobis Magistram in Artibus, Academiae Britannicae Sodalem, Scientiarum Philosophiae Professorem Emeritam, Collegi Wolfsoniani honoris causa Sociam

MARY BRENDA HESSE

SOME perhaps think that scientists who investigate the physical world, who boldly go voyaging on strange seas of thought, are free to use whatever theoretical chart seems right, provided that the matter under investigation becomes more intelligible and new topics can be understood more clearly. Suppose, however, that the process of argument which a scientist employs in conducting research lacks sound analysis of itself: the unexamined argument is simply not for anyone to argue with! What we need is a theory of theories, a chart of the charts which is sound and secure itself.

No one could better search out such justifications than this lady. She began in mathematics; she earned her doctorate in the field of optics; her first dissertation was entitled 'The Status of Scientific Concepts and Laws in the Philosophy of Physics'. Scientists used to reckon that their process of argument was justified by the outcome, or by its adaptability to an unexpected outcome. Dr Hesse deemed that more scrupulous review was necessary, and in books and articles boldly she pursued it, with analytic discourse reminiscent of Thucydides. Most important are Models and Analogies in Science, The Structure of Scientific Inference, and Revolutions and Reconstructions in the Philosophy of Science.

After that, she was bound to look at the language scientists use, and she concludes that, language being unstable, no word can have or keep a strictly literal meaning; there is metaphor of meaning from an existing use to a new one, and a reverse impact on the original meaning; without such metaphor new things could not be grasped. At that point, analysis of the use of words in all fields of study opened up to her eagle eye; nor was her time on Council without some penetrating contributions to the University's own development.

MARY BRENDA HESSE, F.B.A., M.A.,

Professor Emerita of the Philosophy of Science, Honorary Fellow of Wolfson College

MUNDE nitideque togatum eum uidetis adstare qui procuratoris olim munere nostro functus est. quot fuerint quos sic honestare placuit huius Vniuersitatis procuratores obscurum, sed hunc quidem non ea de causa nunc commendamus. potius est narrandus uir summa cura acumine diligentia, cuius subtilitati etiam fauerit fortuna.

hic primo cuniculorum in cellulis sanguinis eis quae colore sunt rubro iam inuenerat quomodo constituantur numerus et natura proteinum ut dicuntur quae post diuisionem creatae adsint; difficillimas sciatis has esse quaesitu quarum multiplicem esse rationem. deinde cellulis ipsis animalium studebat qua ratione diuisae duae creentur ex una: placuit animal simplicius experiri, atque oua arbaciae punctulatae elegit, echini marini genus - generibus inferioribus quantum nos homines iam debeamus non facile dici potest - quorum copia et hic abundat et in ulteriore maris Atlantici ora, quo se aestate docendi causa tum conferebat, euentu mirabili. his enim ouis postquam fertilia sunt facta proteines prius creandae sunt quam diuidi possunt, earumque adeo manifesta generationis est ratio ut suo quaeque cursu uestigari possit. quarum duae tamen, quas hic cyclinas appellauit, certo spatio temporis antequam cellula diuiditur, latescere uidentur: mox diuisa cellula redeunt in conspectum. ibi causane diuisionis erat an euentus?

hunc ut philosophis moris est inspicere ostendimus, admirari, inquirere: tunc autem improbus incipit aliarum instituendarum quaestionum labor. quid multa? diuisionis demum ea res causa esse uisa, cum publici iuris ab hoc facta esset, alibi quoque pullulare coeperat, atque inde permulta praesertim arti medicae commoda iam traHUNTur.

praesento uobis Doctorem in Philosophia, Societatis Regiae Sodalem, ab Aerario ad Cancera medenda instituto Inuestigatorum Principem, Praemio Nobeliano ornatum, Collegi de Clare honoris causa Socium

RICHARD TIMOTHY HUNT

SUITABLY attired and standing before you is one who once was a Proctor. How many Proctors of this University we have seen fit to honour in this fashion is unclear, but that is not the reason for commending this man now. Instead there is a tale to tell of great patience and devoted vigilance, and perhaps of a little serendipity as well.

Dr Hunt had determined how the quantity and variety of proteins are regulated in the blood cells of rabbits after the cells have ceased to divide (these cells are very difficult to investigate, as you will realise, because they are complex entities in themselves). He then became interested in the way in which animal cells divide into two in the first place, and upon deciding to switch to a simpler animal, he chose the eggs of the sea-urchin (Arbacia punctulata) - it is remarkable how much we human beings owe to the lesser orders of creation! There is abundant supply of sea-urchins both on this and on the other side of the Atlantic; he was over that side at the time, teaching on a summer course. He was in for a surprise. After their fertilisation, sea-urchin eggs have to create proteins before cell division can take place, and the pattern for development of the proteins is clear enough for each one to be followed separately. There were two, however (and these he later christened cyclins), which regularly disappeared about ten minutes before cell division; after the division they returned to view. Did the cause of division lie there, or was it merely a result?

Here we have a classic example of the experimental scientist at work, looking, wondering and investigating. Here was also the moment when the great toil began of setting up further experiments. To be brief: there lay the cause of division, and once Dr Hunt had published his findings, cyclins started to hop into view elsewhere, and much has ensued of particular importance in the understanding of cancer.

RICHARD TIMOTHY HUNT, F.R.S., Ph.D.,

Principal Scientist of Cancer Research UK, Nobel Laureate, Honorary Fellow of Clare College

HISTORIAM M. Tullius testem temporum esse, lucem ueritatis, uitam memoriae, magistram uitae, nuntiam uetustatis affirmat.¹ Hac quidem femina pauci sunt qui planius et apertius tempora magni momenti sed annorum obliuione obscurata patefecerint; praeterea fontes illos notitiae, chartas, codices, fastos, publici iuris haec multos fecit, inter quos librum eorum longissimum qui nobis ex aeuo medio dicto supersunt, uerborum non minus figuris ac numeris attenta quam sensui tam perfecte edidit ut editore ipsa nullo egere uideatur.

librum illum conscripsit Ordericus quidam, in comitatu Salopiensi natus sed puer X annorum a patre in monasterium Vticense tramissus; ut uero ille regni Normannorum ab extremo fine in intimam migrasse regionem, ita haec licet dicatur, eodem in comitatu nata non procul ab ecclesia Sancto Eatae dedicata ubi is baptizatus est, gentis illius uestigia mente et cogitatione persecuta esse: tam penitus autem ea cognouisse quae ad regnum Gulielmi quem Victorem uocamus et filiorum eius pertineant ut nemo aestimatione probabiliore tempora illa et mores explicuerit. legatis uelim quae de imperatrice Matilda conscripsit, femina tum temporis praestante sed sparsim et intercise memoriae tradita: eo pudore enim usa quo quondam Ordericus cum conuentum Henrici cum Roberto fratre narrauit, praeter cognita nihil asseuerat sed cognita tam sapienter tam aeque exposuit ut cetera sponte intellegi possint. testamentorum aliarumque eius modi tabularum ea qua est praedita scientia quid mirum si Aulae de Clare legibus instituendae praefecta scrupulose minuteque subuenit?

praesento uobis Doctorem in Philosophia, Academiae Britannicae Sodalem, Collegi Girtonensis honoris causa Sociam, Aulae de Clare Sociam

MARJORIE McCALLUM CHIBNALL

HISTORY, declares Cicero, is the witness of the times; it illumines the truth, gives life to our memories and guidance to our lives, and keeps the past ever before us. Few have revealed with a greater clarity than this lady times of great importance that have been dimmed by the forgetful years; she has moreover put in the public domain many documents of all sorts that are fundamental to our knowledge, among them the longest single work to survive from the medieval period: with due attention not only to its content but also to its rhetoric and rhythms, she edited it so perfectly that her own text needed no editor.

The work was written by a man called Orderic, born in Shropshire but despatched by his father at the age of ten to the monastery of St Evroul in Normandy. We may say that he moved from a fringe of the Norman world right to its heart; his editor, too, was born in Shropshire, not very far from the church of St Eata at Atcham where Orderic was baptized, and we may say that she too in an intellectual journey has reached the very heart of all things Norman. So thorough is her understanding of the kingship of William the Conqueror and his sons that there is no more convincing interpretation of those times than hers. I would have you read what she has written about the Empress Matilda, a woman of great importance in her day but only patchily and sporadically reported in the records; Dr Chibnall is as scrupulous in her narrative as was Orderic himself when recording the momentous meeting of the two brothers Henry I and Duke Robert: she sets out what is known, and no more, but she sets it out so wisely and so fairly that the rest can be understood with ease. As for her knowledge of medieval statutes and other such regulatory texts, it was natural that Clare Hall for its foundation should have availed itself of her scholarship and made her Convenor of its Ordinances Committee.

MARJORIE McCALLUM CHIBNALL, F.B.A., Ph.D.,

QUOMODO sit uiuendum eam maximam omnium quaestionem primus rogasse Socrates dicitur, necdum conuenienter ei est a philosophis responsum. hic uir tamen, philosophus quo nemo sapientior hoc saeculo esse habetur idemque munerum publicorum peritus, inter eos acceptus est qui plurimum ad definiendum locum elaborauere.

illam enim philosophiam quam ethicen uocabant Graeci, cuius hic se praecipue dedidit studio, totam ab antiquitate ad recentissimos disputatam non modo penitus intellexit sed sententias de ea habitas quo quis recentior urget eo minus suadere arbitratus hoc memorat, non de opinione cuiuspiam sapientis utra acutius arguatur agi sed potius interesse cuiusuis hominis quomodo ubique se gerat: non enim sapientium tantum id studium esse sed hominum qualiumcumque.

ethicen dixi; nam appellatione illa usitata qua philosophia moralis uocatur aliud fere significari ostendit, neque oportere rem tam anguste coercere. sunt autem qui sic disceptauerint, si cui quid aequum esse uideatur, ei quid aliud esse faciendum? sed hic inter illud aequum esse et faciendum esse hoc quaerit, num cui uoluntas sit ita se gerendi; praeterea fieri posse ut duarum rerum facienda sit neutra: tali necessitate deuinctum coactum esse Agamemnona; cui tamen magis fratris et sociorum quam coniugis pudere placuisse.

sed ibi latet altera philosophia, atque hunc talia refellentem legatis ipsum licet. nunc tamen munera illa forensia commemoremus quae de rebus aleatoriis suscepit, de aequitate ciuili, de uenenorum abusu, de eis censendis quae in medium prolata displiceant; neque immerito dicamus hunc principum principem esse sapientem.

praesento uobis Equitem Auratum, Magistrum in Artibus, Academiae Britannicae Sodalem, Philosophiae in Vniversitate Californiensi ad Berkeley in nomine Monroe Deutsch Professorem, Philosophiae in nomine Knightbridge olim Professorem, Collegi Regalis Socium et quondam Magistrum

BERNARD ARTHUR OWEN WILLIAMS

HOW should life be lived? Socrates put the question first, we are told, and it is a supremely important question, to which philosophers have not yet found a good answer. Among those who are reckoned to have done most to define the ground is counted this man, unsurpassed in his generation as a philosopher and one with a notable record of public action.

In philosophy he has devoted himself chiefly to the field which the Greeks called Ethics. The debate began in antiquity, it has continued ever since, and this man is thoroughly familiar with all of it. More recent views are not those that persuade him most: he observes that it is not a topic in which the intellectual sharpness of this or that philosopher's theory should prevail; rather, any man should mind how he conducts himself in this or that context. Not just philosophers, but men of all sorts should be concerned about ethics.

Ethics, I said; Sir Bernard argues that its common name of Moral Philosophy means something a little different, and that its limits should not be defined so narrowly. There are those who have argued that what a man thinks right he is bound to do; Sir Bernard has a clause to add between thinking something right and doing it, which is the question whether the man desires so to behave. Besides, it can happen that of two deeds neither should be done. Yet the necessity of choosing one once constrained Agamemnon; he decided there was more shame in disappointing his brother and their allies than in disappointing his wife.

At this point in the argument another theory of Ethics is looming; for refutation of that you may read the man himself. Let us not fail to mention the public inquiries he has undertaken, on gambling, on social justice, on the misuse of drugs, and on obscenity and film censorship; even Plato himself might have acknowledged in this man a philosopher king of kings.

Sir BERNARD ARTHUR OWEN WILLIAMS, F.B.A., M.A.,

Monroe Deutsch Professor of Philosophy in the University of California, Berkeley, formerly Knightbridge Professor of Philosophy, Fellow and sometime Provost of King's College