DEAR READER,

THIS WEBSITE IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION

DO USE THE ‘BIBLIOGRAPHY’ — IT IS FUNCTIONING AND CONTAINS ALL RICK’S KNOWN WORK, MOST PIECES WITH ACTIVE HYPERLINKS. MANY OTHER MENU ITEMS HAVE LITTLE CONTENT AS YET. WE ARE WORKING HARD BUILDING THE SITE.

Thanks for your patience!

Rick Turner (1941-78) was a South African philosopher and educator. He was drawn to fundamental questions regarding people and the systems they construct within which they live. A charismatic teacher, he motivated students to actively oppose the apartheid system from first principles. He was banned (ie. put under virtual house arrest) in 1973 and murdered by secret police, still not identified, in 1978.

Rick’s utopian essay ‘The Eye of the Needle’ (1972) imagining a better future for South Africa is much debated. But his substantial philosophy papers remain unpublished and little discussed. Rick was motivated by his existential philosophy and his ideas continue to challenge how we think, live and cooperate.

Hence the purpose of this website: to bring together all Rick’s writings and introduce them to the reader. Writings from each period are identified, described and –where possible–a clickable link to each paper is provided. For easy reference, the writings and commentaries are also listed in a bibliography.

As of February 2026, building-out the website is at an early stage. But good progress has been made with compiling the bibliography, thanks to the ready cooperation of Historical Papers Archive, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa https://researcharchives.wits.ac.za/a3454. And a collection of photos, film and letters has been begun, thanks to the help of Rick’s daughters Kim and Jann Turner.

This website is created by a collective of Rick’s friends: Foszia Turner-Stylianou (Rick’s widow), Martin Fransman, Frederik van Gelder, Michael Hubbard and Dan O’Meara.

Questions and suggestions most welcome.