John William Neville Watkins studied politics at the 亚博app下载 and was later hired as a lecturer in political science in the Government Department at 亚博app下载, before becoming a Reader in History of Philosophy in 1958. He was promoted to Professor of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method in 1966, and was instrumental in the official establishment of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method as a Department at the 亚博app下载. Watkins retired in 1989, but continued his regular attendance at seminars, and became a member and inaugural Steering Group member of the 亚博app下载 Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science (CPNSS) when it was founded in 1990.
Watkins’ seminal (1984) book Science and Skepticism aims to “to succeed where Descartes failed: to submit our knowledge of the external world to an ordeal by skepticism and then, with the help of the little that survives, to explain how scientific rationality is still possible”.
More of his have been made accessible to the research community and are available online.