Very sadly for the Department, Greg Fried has decided to move on to other things. During his 12 years in the department Greg has been a superb colleague. He is a talented teacher and is clearly highly appreciated by his students on the many courses he taught: Great Philosophers; Critical Thinking; the Philosophy of Mathematics; Business Ethics; amongst others. Some of these Greg also initiated. Another great innovation Greg brought to the Department was the annual series of lectures aimed at school children, Foundations in Philosophy. This programme is a resounding success, attracting vast numbers of students onto the campus in the evenings to think about philosophy. On the administrative front he made important contributions as convenor of the PPE programme and, more recently, as the staff representative on the Philosophy Student Council. He served as Deputy Chair of the Senate Animal Ethics Committee for many years, and facilitated important changes in policy guiding animal research. His research interests all have something to do with use of formal methods in our thinking and often to do with their human value. So he writes on topics in rational decision making and also on some of the less well travelled roads in the philosophy of mathematics: on the human value of studying mathematics, on mathematical propositions as God’s thoughts and on beauty in mathematics.

The department will miss him greatly, and wishes him well; we know that, though he may be leaving the philosophy department, he won’t leave philosophy.

For those of you wishing to leave a message of thanks or of good wishes to Greg, please email philosophy@uct.ac.za.