Obituary: John Mepham
John Mepham, who was a Lecturer in Philosophy at Sussex from 1965 to 1976, has died in London at the age of 73, after several years of severely restricting illness.
John Mepham
As an undergraduate he studied biochemistry at Oxford, but he always had much wider interests. After graduating with a first, he went to Princeton to study the history of biology with Charles Gillispie, before returning to Oxford to do a diploma in the history and philosophy of science.
He applied for a post at Sussex in 1965, and with his broad interests he and Sussex seemed made for each other. While he was at Sussex, he moved from teaching the history and philosophy of science to teaching straight philosophy, and from there to develop his interest in literature.
As a philosopher John was one of the founding editors of Radical Philosophy: Professor Kate Soper, one of his students at the time, remembers early issues being pasted up on his kitchen table in Colbourne Road in Brighton. He was closely involved with the journal’s advocacy of continental philosophy, and with its challenge to existing philosophical provision.
He was a key figure in the planning and teaching of Sussex’s MA course in Marxist Philosophy, which was widely influential in other British universities. As editorial consultant to the then newly established Harvester Press, he was involved in a number of pioneering publications, including the four-volume Issues in Marxist Philosophy, which he edited with David-Hillel Ruben.
In literature he had a particular interest in Virginia Woolf, going on to write student guides to individual works of hers, as well as a highly regarded short literary biography.
After Sussex John taught in Australia and America, but was mainly based in London. His last post before retirement was as a teacher of English Literature at Kingston University.
He left a strong impression on all who met him. “John was the most intelligent person I have ever known,” says Professor Gabriel Josipovici, a friend from undergraduate days, and a colleague during John’s time at Sussex.
He remembers John’s devotion to teaching and to his students, when he frequently gave six or seven quite different courses in a single term. “If I don’t teach these courses, no one else will and they need to exist,” he recalls John saying. “His utter integrity and his ability to ask the really important questions, his sense that in the field of human thought and culture there were no barriers, transformed the lives of many of those students,” says Professor Josipovici; “it certainly enriched my own life.”
A memorial is being held at Kingston University today (Friday 5 October).