Eugene Kamenka was born in Cologne

Cologne

Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...

 in 1928 and taken to Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 in 1937. Kamenka family is of Odessa

Odessa

Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...

 descent. He was educated at the Sydney Technical High School

Sydney Technical High School

Sydney Technical High School is an academically selective, state-funded high school for boys in Bexley, a southern suburb of Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1911 as part of Sydney Technical College, the school was one of the six original New South Wales selective schools...

, and went on to take first-class honours in philosophy

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

 at the University of Sydney

University of Sydney

The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...

 under John Anderson

John Anderson (philosopher)

John Anderson was a Scottish-born Australian philosopher who occupied the post of Challis Professor of Philosophy at Sydney University in the years 1927-1958. He founded the empirical brand of philosophy known as Australian realism...

. His doctoral thesis, The Ethical Foundations of Marxism

Marxism

Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...

, for the Australian National University

Australian National University

The Australian National University is a teaching and research university located in the Australian capital, Canberra.As of 2009, the ANU employs 3,945 administrative staff who teach approximately 10,000 undergraduates, and 7,500 postgraduate students...

, was published in 1962. Kamenka has lectured in philosophy at the University of Singapore and lectured and reaearched in Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

, North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

 and most countries in Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

; he was a Professor and the Head of the History of Ideas Unit at the Institute of Advanced Studies of the Australian National University, and lived in Canberra

Canberra

Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...

.

Together with his second wife, Alice Erh-Soon Tay, a professor of jurisprudence at Sydney University and scholar of comparative and Asian legal systems, Dr. Kamenka authored several works in philosophy of law and comparative law.http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9504E1DA1E30F935A15752C0A962958260

His other works include:

• Marxism and Ethics (1969)
• A World in Revolution? (1970)
• The Philosophy of Ludwig Feuerbach (1970)
• The Portable Karl Marx (1983)
• Nationalism: The Nature and Evolution of an Idea
• Bureaucracy (1989)

External links

• The Ethical Foundations of Marxism by Eugene Kamenka (1962)
• Marxian Humanism and the Crisis in Socialist Ethics by Eugene Kamenka (1965)
• New York Times Obituary (January 26, 1994)