University of Buckingham Professor awarded New Years Honours

Professor Anthony O’Hear, of the School of Education, has been awarded an OBE for services to education.

He is Director of the Royal Institute of Philosophy, editor of the journal Philosophy, author of many books on the subject, and was formerly Government Advisor on Education and Teacher Training. He is a philosopher with a special interest in education. 

Vice-Chancellor Sir Anthony Seldon said: “The honour is thoroughly-deserved. His contribution to education has been enormous and many of the students he has taught have spoken warmly about their learning. He is a huge asset to the University and to the country.”

Professor O’Hear’s areas of expertise are wide-ranging but he has a particular interest in philosophy of science, philosophy of religion, aesthetics and culture, political philosophy and ethics, educational philosophy and practice, the curriculum, moral and religious education, education and politics.

Last year the professor and his daughter won one of the world’s most prestigious literary prizes for a book which explores the relationship between the book of Revelation and how it is interpreted in art, music and literature.

The ACE/Mercers’ Book Award is the only prize for a publication that “notably advances a public understanding of the relationship between the visual arts and religious experience, beliefs and practice.”

Philosophy lecturer Professor Anthony O’Hear, and his daughter Natasha, who is an honorary lecturer in Theology, Imagination and the Arts at the University of St Andrews, were awarded for their book Picturing the Apocalypse: The Book of Revelation in the Arts over Two Millennia, which explores the relationship between the book of Revelation and how it is interpreted in art, music and literature.

His other publications include:

• Plato’s Children. Gordon Square, 2005.
• Philosophy in the New Century . Continuum, 2001.
• After Progress . Bloomsbury, 1999.
• Beyond Evolution: human nature and the limits of evolutionary explanation.Clarendon Press, 1997.
• Introduction to the Philosophy of Science. Oxford University Press, 1989.
• The Element of Fire: science, art and the human world. Routledge, 1988.
• Karl Popper . Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1980