14 Facts About Kathy Wilkes

Kathleen Vaughan Wilkes was an English philosopher and academic who played an important part in rebuilding the education systems of former Communist countries after 1990.

Kathy Wilkes established her reputation as an academic with her contributions to the philosophy of mind in two major works and many articles in professional journals.

Wilkes, who was known as Kathy, was the daughter of Rev J C Vaughan Wilkes who had been a master at Eton and Warden of Radley College before entering holy orders, and was for many years vicar of Marlow.

Kathy Wilkes was educated at Wycombe Abbey and St Hugh's College, Oxford, where she achieved a double First.

Kathy Wilkes's achievement was all the greater in light of the excruciating pain she was suffering from as a result of a teenage riding accident.

Kathy Wilkes spent a period at Princeton University, where she studied with Thomas Nagel, Richard Rorty and others, and received her Ph.

Kathy Wilkes then lived the life of an Oxbridge don.

Kathy Wilkes showed extraordinary courage in conducting secret meetings in crowded flats with groups of philosophers.

Kathy Wilkes made the difficult and risky trip many times, smuggling in banned books and taking out samizdat manuscripts.

Kathy Wilkes encouraged and financially supported dissident intellectuals, finally bringing the Czech philosopher Julius Tomin and family to England.

Kathy Wilkes became chairman of the executive committee of the Inter-University Centre in Dubrovnik in 1986.

Kathy Wilkes paid for a young Croatian psychologist's education at Oxford, maintaining throughout that the fees were being met by a fictitious 'Alington trust'.

Kathy Wilkes was specifically referenced by her colleague Roger Scruton who took her as his model of the English gentleman, arguing that "her virtues were revealed in nothing so much, as her habit of concealing them".

Kathy Wilkes appeared in the Channel 4 documentary series College Girls, broadcast in 2002 about some St Hilda's students.