Glen Francis Newey (30 May 1961 – 30 September 2017)[1][2] was a political philosopher, last acting as a Professor of Practical Philosophy at the University of Leiden. He previously taught in Brussels at the Université Libre de Bruxelles and until 2011 was Professor in the School of Politics, International Relations & Philosophy at Keele University, Staffordshire, England. He was a prominent member of the "Realist" school of political philosophers which also includes such figures as Bernard Williams, John N. Gray, and Raymond Geuss. Newey also wrote extensively about toleration, casting doubt on whether it remains a coherent political ideal in modern liberal-democratic societies.
Newey blogged regularly for the London Review of Books on a range of topics including UK and overseas politics, university politics, finance and culture, taking a strongly critical stance against free-market capitalism and the marketising of higher education. His journalistic articles were often informal in vein; in one article entitled As Useful as a String Condom[3] Newey criticised the British Royal Family as being of no use any more in modern Britain. His journalistic output also included film and theatre reviews, as well as review essays on political and moral philosophy, and cultural criticism. He was also a strong defender of free speech and of academic freedom.
Glen Newey was educated at Victoria College, Jersey and Jesus College, Cambridge, where he studied History under the supervision of Richard Tuck. After graduating he worked for several years as a schoolteacher in Jersey. He completed Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees at the University of York, where his doctoral supervisor was Professor John Horton. Before working at Keele University, Newey had taught at the University of Sussex, University of Strathclyde, University of York, Birkbeck College and the University of Oxford. He also taught at the Université Libre de Bruxelles.
Glen Newey's main research interests were in political philosophy. His work focuses on toleration, the nature of politics, political morality, including the ethics of deception in public life, security, freedom of speech, and the political theory of Thomas Hobbes. He argues that modern liberalism, as defended by John Rawls and his followers, sidelines politics in favour of a moralised account of public life. Latterly, his work concentrated upon the relationship between security and other political concepts, as well as the nature of politics and the relation between freedom and justice. Political deception was another area of interest. Between 2008 and 2010 he was a research associate at Helsinki Collegium.
Other areas of interest included the concept of security, freedom of speech, Hobbes's political philosophy and the philosophical basis that political systems are built upon. His academic and journalistic output examined liberal views and develops an alternative to them.
Newey died on 30 September 2017 in a boating accident in Rotterdam, Netherlands, involving multiple gas explosions.
Books
Journal editions
Articles
Broadcasting
BBC Radio 4 (The World Tonight); BBC Radio 3 (Sunday Feature); Fox Television News, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (The Current); radio news broadcasts in Austria, Australia, South Africa, Brazil, Ireland, etc.
"Professor Glen Newey, philosopher – obituary" Daily Telegraph (Archived by Wayback Machine)