A festschrift for my friend?

Abstract

This chapter takes the form of an intellectual biography of Stephen Kemmis written from the perspective of a colleague and friend who has worked closely with him for the best part of forty years. I will try, as best I can, to describe some of the enduring ideas and beliefs that have permeated the numerous different theoretical and empirical research studies that Stephen has undertaken throughout his career as well as some of the major philosophers and theorists-both classical and modern-who have had a profound effect on his thinking. On the basis of this biography, I will distil some understanding of what it is that has always provided the underlying coherence of Stephen’s work and which allow us to see how the separate and seemingly diverse episodes in, and stages of, Stephen’s academic career, form part of a single and continuous story that constitutes what MacIntyre calls ‘a quest for the good’.