John Passmore attended the University of Sydney, graduating with honours in literature and philosophy. He was Professor of Philosophy at the Australian National University from 1959 until 1979. He had a distinguished academic career and was also a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities, a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy, an Honorary Foreign Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Foreign Member of the Royal Danish Academy of Science and Letters. He travelled and lectured widely overseas but refused several postings in America and Europe, preferring to remain in Australia. His writings on philosophy include One Hundred Years of Philosophy (1957), The Perfectability of Man (1970), and Recent Philosophers (1985). He explored topics such as Man's Responsibility for Nature: ecological problems and Western traditions (1974), Art, Science and Imagination (1975), Science and its Critics (1978), The Ecology of the Arts (1979), Serious Art (1991), as well as works on the philosophy of education. The John Passmore Lecture is held annually at the Australian National University in his honour.
