JOHN ANDERSON AND THE BOMB SQUAD
In the Southeastern corner of the Quadrangle at the University of Sydney, there once grew a large jacaranda tree; a glory to behold when in full bloom and covered with its sky-blue flowers. It has since been replaced by a sapling of the same species. Jacarandas, though native to Central America and not Australia, are widely grown as an ornamental tree the world over. The university’s philosophy department and its lecture theatre used to be located in that same corner. Also close by was the office occupied from late 1927 to the early 1960s by the legendary Professor John Anderson, and central to Anderson’s philosophy was emphasis on unceasing enquiry and criticism. This was no better exemplified than in the trial and death of the Athenian philosopher Socrates, the story of which is related by Plato in his Apology of 399 BCE. That in turn was Anderson’s introductory text to freshers in Philosophy, and expounded upon and discussed at length by him for a full term. Robert Hughes, in hi