Joseph Bright Skemp

Joseph Bright Skemp (born May 10, 1910 , † October 10, 1992 ) was a British classical philologist ( Graecist ) and historian of philosophy .

After visiting the Wolverhampton Grammar School Skemp classics on studying Gonville and Caius College of Cambridge University . He then completed a doctorate at the University of Edinburgh . From 1936 to 1947 he was a Drosier Fellow at Gonville and Caius College, from 1944 to 1946 at the same time Secretary of the Society for the Protection of Science and Learning. From 1946 to 1949 he was a lecturer in Greek and Latin at Manchester University , from 1949 to 1950 a reader in Greek philology at Durham University , and from 1950 to his retirement in 1973 professor there. Skemp was a dedicated Baptist who started a church in Durham with his wife Ruby James († 1987).

Skemp taught and researched mainly on the Greek philosopher Plato . His edition of the statesman ( politicos ) was highly valued and had several editions. He was the founder of Phronesis magazine in 1955 with Donald James Allan and was co-editor until 1964.

Fonts (selection)

• The Theory of Motion in Plato's Later Dialogues. Ph.D. thesis, Cambridge UP, Cambridge 1942, second edition 1967.
• Plato's Statesman. A Translation of the Politikos of Plato with Introductory Essays and Footnotes. Routledge, London 1952, revised edition, 1987; edited with an Introduction by Martin Ostwald , Indianapolis 1992; second edition 2002, Bristol Classical Press, Bristol.
• The Greeks and the Gospel. Carey Kingsgate Press, London 1964.
• The Metaphysics of Theophrastus in relation to the doctrine of κίνησις in Plato's later dialogues. In: Ingemar Düring (Ed.): Natural philosophy with Aristoteles and Theophrast. Negotiations of the 4th Aristotelicum Symposium held in Gothenburg. August 1966. Heidelberg 1969, 217-223.
• Plato. Oxford 1976 (Greece and Rome, New Surveys in the Classics, no.10).

Web links

• Gavin Townend: Obituary: Professor JB Skemp . In: The Independent, Friday October 16, 1992