Cirrus@Austlit

Hector Monro grew up in New Zealand. He studied journalism and had some success as a freelance journalist before studying philosophy and political science, graduating with an MA in 1935. He worked in the Auckland Public Library until the Second World War, when his pacifism led to his imprisonment in Wellington for four years. It was while he was in prison that he wrote his first book, Argument of Laughter. He taught at Otago University and for a short time in the UK before moving to Sydney as Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at Sydney University (1954-1960). In 1961 he established the Foundation Chair of Philosophy at Monash University, and he was made Emeritus Professor following his retirement in 1976. He was a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities. Monro published five works on moral philosophy and ethics and edited the Australian Journal of Philosophy.