The Foundation has established an annual prize for final year students studying at King’s College, London, for the best dissertation on some aspect of Ancient Philosophy. The prize was named after Mary Margaret McCabe, Emerita Professor of Ancient Philosophy at King’s, a leading authority on Plato who has inspired countless students in their study of his works.
This winner of the inaugural prize was Quanzhi Liang, a graduate from the Philosophy Department at King’s College. His dissertation was about the concept of ‘realism in perception’. He received the prize at a ceremony held in the Council Room at the University on 13 June 2023.
The award ceremony proved somewhat logistically challenging as Quanzhi had to join remotely from China. Nevertheless, the technology worked well. The Head of the Classics Department, Dr Will Wootton, presented the prize to Quanzhi who responded with a very gracious acceptance speech. The Head of Ancient Philosophy, Professor Raphael Woolf, then spoke about Quanzhi, describing him as a natural scholar who, throughout his dissertation, adopted the Platonic approach of raising and addressing objections to the arguments as they were presented.
Next year Quanzhi will be joining the PhD programme at Princeton. We wish him well.
