He is known for his contributions to classical liberal arts education and his role as an academic administrator at Queen's University Belfast and Corpus Christi College, Oxford.

During his time there, he introduced summer schools for colonial administrators, expanded adult education programs, and played a key role in establishing a residential college for women.

[3] In 1944, he delivered the Rede Lecture at Cambridge on Plato and modern education[4] and served as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford from 1944 to 1947.

In his subsequent lecture, he proposed that Christianity, alongside a renewed ethical system and rational philosophy, represented the “hope of the civilized world.” He criticized the loss of fundamental beliefs and common purpose, attributing part of the blame to universities for failing to impart a meaningful philosophy of life.

Livingstone concluded his final lecture by suggesting that while ethics alone are insufficient as a guide to conduct, the search for a modern equivalent of Aristotle could help navigate the moral uncertainties of the time.

[1] His portrait, painted by the eminent Hungarian artist Philip de László, hangs in the Great Hall of the University.