John Laird (philosopher)

John Laird (born May 17, 1887 in Durris, Kincardineshire , † August 5, 1946 in Aberdeen ) was a Scottish philosopher and university professor. From 1924 until his death he was the Regius Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Aberdeen .

Life

Laird was the eldest son of DMW Laird, a third generation pastor of the Church of Scotland , and his wife Margaret Laird, nee Steward, daughter of teacher John Steward. His education began at the village school in Durris, followed by two years at the Grammar School in Aberdeen . When his family moved to Edinburgh , he took the opportunity and studied philosophy at the University of Edinburgh from 1904 . Among his fellow students, he was considered highly intelligent, even if he showed little enthusiasm for training and the university. In 1908 he completed his studies with honors as an MA.

Laird moved to Trinity College at the University of Cambridge , where he completed both parts of the Moral Sciences Tripos from 1910-11 . He spent a year as an assistant at the University of St Andrews and then a short time at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia before the 1913 Queen's University Belfast moved to the chair of logic and metaphysics ( Professor of Logic and Metaphysics ) to take over. In 1919 he met Helen Ritchie, the daughter of a local linen producer, in Belfast . The couple married that same year. The only son from the relationship died in childhood.

In 1924 Laird was appointed to the chair of the Regius Professor of Moral Philosophy in Aberdeen, succeeding the resigned James Black Baillie . Despite the professorship's specialization in moral philosophy , Laird continued to publish on subjects such as metaphysics , ethics , the history of philosophy and English literature .

Work

With his first book, Problems of Self (1917) and also with the second, Study in Religion (1919), he examined the epistemological and metaphysical foundations with which he justified his attitudes ascribed to critical realism .

In his earliest work, Laird set himself apart from his idealistic contemporaries at the University of Oxford, Francis Herbert Bradley and Harold H. Joachim . Its orientation corresponded to the predominantly Scottish common sense philosophy introduced 200 years earlier by Thomas Reid . After Laird had defined his foundations, he turned to philosophy-history topics and wrote several biographical works in the early 1930s, including on Hume and Hobbes . With his work An Inquiry into Moral Notions , he briefly returned to his studies of ethics in 1935. The work was heavily criticized. The Gifford Lectures in 1939 and 1940 gave Laird the opportunity to return to his metaphysical subjects and provided the material for his most famous books Theism and Cosmology (1940) and Mind and Deity (1941).

Honors

In 1914 Laird held the Shaw Lecturs at the University of Edinburgh. In 1933 Laird was elected a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA). In 1935 he received an LL.D. honored by the University of Edinburgh. 1939 and 1940 Laird gave the Gifford Lectures on the topics of Theism and Cosmology (Theism and Cosmology) and mind and divinity (Mind and Deity). In 1944 he held the Herbert Spencer Lectures at the University of Oxford and in 1945 the Forwood Lecturers at the University of Liverpool . Also in 1945, the Queens University Belfast honored him with a D.Litt.

bibliography

1917: Problems of Self : Essay based on the Shaw Lectures at the University of Edinburgh
1919: Study in Religion
1920: A Study in Realism
1925: Our Minds and Their Bodies
1926: A Study in Moral Theory
1928: Modern Problems in Philosophy
1929: The Idea of Value
1930: Knowledge Belief and Opinion
1932: Hume's Philosophy of Human Nature
1934: Hobbes
1935: An Inquiry Into Moral Notions
1936: Recent Philosophy
1940: Theism and Cosmology
1941: Mind and Deity
1944: The Device of Government: An Essay on Civil Polity
1946: Philosophical Incursions Into English Literature
2018: John Laird: The Autobiography of a Scots Professor

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t ^u ^v ^w ^x ^y ^z ^aa Michael W. DeLashmutt: John Laird. Regius Professor Moral Philosophy, University of Aberdeen. In: Gifford Lectures website. Retrieved May 12, 2020 (English).
^ ^A ^b John Laird: John Laird . The Autobiography of a Scots Professor. In: The Journal of Scottish Thought , 19 College Bounds, University of Aberdeen, AB24 3UG (Ed.): The Journal of Scottish Thought . tape 6 . Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies, University of Aberdeen, 2018, ISSN 1755-9928 (English, abdn.ac.uk [PDF; accessed May 14, 2020] with a foreword by Craig Cairns, University of Aberdeen).
↑ ^a ^b unknown: Scottish Office, Whitehall, SW 1, 10th November 1924. In: The Edinburgh Gazette, November 11, 1924. November 10, 1924, accessed on May 12, 2020 (English, notification of the appointment of John Laird as Regius Professor of Moral Philosophy).
^ AD Ritchie: Prof. John Laird, FBA In: Nature . tape 158 . 2020 Springer Nature Limited, August 24, 1946, p. 263 , doi : 10.1038 / 158263a0 .

personal data
SURNAME	Laird, John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Scottish philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH	May 17, 1887
PLACE OF BIRTH	Durris, Kincardineshire
DATE OF DEATH	August 5, 1946
Place of death	Aberdeen

[GiffLectLaird-1] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t ^u ^v ^w ^x ^y ^z ^aa Michael W. DeLashmutt: John Laird. Regius Professor Moral Philosophy, University of Aberdeen. In: Gifford Lectures website. Retrieved May 12, 2020 (English).

[JourScotT6-2] A ^b John Laird: John Laird . The Autobiography of a Scots Professor. In: The Journal of Scottish Thought , 19 College Bounds, University of Aberdeen, AB24 3UG (Ed.): The Journal of Scottish Thought . tape 6 . Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies, University of Aberdeen, 2018, ISSN 1755-9928 (English, abdn.ac.uk [PDF; accessed May 14, 2020] with a foreword by Craig Cairns, University of Aberdeen).

[LGaz14074-1388-3] unknown: Scottish Office, Whitehall, SW 1, 10th November 1924. In: The Edinburgh Gazette, November 11, 1924. November 10, 1924, accessed on May 12, 2020 (English, notification of the appointment of John Laird as Regius Professor of Moral Philosophy).

[Ritchie1946-4] AD Ritchie: Prof. John Laird, FBA In: Nature . tape 158 . 2020 Springer Nature Limited, August 24, 1946, p. 263 , doi : 10.1038 / 158263a0 .