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Speculative Society
The Speculative Society is a Scottish Enlightenment society dedicated to public speaking and literary composition, founded in 1764. It was mainly, but not exclusively, an Edinburgh University student organisation. The formal purpose of the Society is as a place for social interchange and for practising of professional competency in rhetoric, argument, and the presentation of papers among fellow members. While continuing to meet in its rooms in the University's Old College, it has no formal links to the University. History The founding group, in November 1764, consisted of John Bonar, the younger, John Bruce, William Creech, Henry Mackenzie, and a Mr Belches of Invermay. They were encouraged by William Robertson. A split occurred in the Society in 1794, when Francis Jeffrey and Walter Scott urged the inclusion of contemporary politics in the scope of permitted debating topics. At this period, of political repression, the Society was a venue appreciated by young Whigs. They include ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scottish Enlightenment
The Scottish Enlightenment ( sco, Scots Enlichtenment, gd, Soillseachadh na h-Alba) was the period in 18th- and early-19th-century Scotland characterised by an outpouring of intellectual and scientific accomplishments. By the eighteenth century, Scotland had a network of parish schools in the Scottish Lowlands and five universities. The Enlightenment culture was based on close readings of new books, and intense discussions took place daily at such intellectual gathering places in Edinburgh as The Select Society and, later, The Poker Club, as well as within Scotland's ancient universities (St Andrews, Glasgow, Edinburgh, King's College, and Marischal College). Sharing the humanist and rational outlook of the Western Enlightenment of the same time period, the thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment asserted the importance of human reason combined with a rejection of any authority that could not be justified by reason. In Scotland, the Enlightenment was characterised by a thoroug ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
University Of Cambridge
, mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University of Cambridge , type = Public research university , endowment = £7.121 billion (including colleges) , budget = £2.308 billion (excluding colleges) , chancellor = The Lord Sainsbury of Turville , vice_chancellor = Anthony Freeling , students = 24,450 (2020) , undergrad = 12,850 (2020) , postgrad = 11,600 (2020) , city = Cambridge , country = England , campus_type = , sporting_affiliations = The Sporting Blue , colours = Cambridge Blue , website = , logo = University of Cambridge logo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cyrus Griffin
Cyrus Griffin (July 16, 1748 – December 14, 1810), a Virginia lawyer and politician, was the final President of the Congress of the Confederation and first United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Virginia. Education and career Born on July 16, 1748, to the former Mary Anne Bertrand and her husband Col. Leroy Griffin in Farnham Parish (now Farnham), then in Lancaster County (which became part of Richmond County in his lifetime), Colony of Virginia, British America, Griffin had a slightly older brother Samuel Griffin who also became a Virginia lawyer, and Continental Army officer before beginning a political career that included service in the U.S. House of Representatives. The family could trace its descent from Thomas Griffin, who had received land grant in 1651 Tyler p. 111 Meanwhile, like his brother Cyrus received a private education appropriate to his class in Virginia, then sailed to England to complete his education. He studie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nicholas Fairbairn
Sir Nicholas Hardwick Fairbairn, (24 December 1933 – 19 February 1995) was a Scottish politician. He was the Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Kinross and Western Perthshire from October 1974 to 1983, and then for Perth and Kinross until his death in 1995. He was Solicitor General for Scotland from 1979 to 1982. Early life Nicholas Fairbairn was born in Edinburgh on 24 December 1933, the third child and second son of Mary Ann More-Gordon and Ronald Fairbairn, the psychoanalyst. According to Fairbairn's autobiography ''A Life is Too Short'' (1987), his father adopted the maternal role after his mother rejected him at birth. Fairbairn describes their relationship from when he could converse with his father, for the next 20 years until old age affected his father, like that of twins with his father treating him as "his equal and confidant". Fairbairn credited this relationship as enabling him to "withstand the trauma and rejection I felt... enabled me to feel secur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander Colquhoun-Stirling-Murray-Dunlop
Alexander Colquhoun-Stirling-Murray-Dunlop (27 December 1798 – 1 September 1870) was a Scottish church advocate and Liberal Party politician. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Greenock from 1852 to 1868. He was a very influential figure in the Disruption of 1843 which led to the formation of the Free Church of Scotland. For that denomination he drafted the Church-State papers: the Claim of Right and the Protest. He became known by the nickname the Member for Scotland. Early life and career Alexander Murray Dunlop was born in Greenock on 27 December 1798. He was the fifth son of Alexander Dunlop of Keppoch, Dunbartonshire, by Margaret Colquhoun of Kenmure, Lanarkshire. His family had in former times taken much interest in the Scottish church. He was educated at the Grammar School of that town, and at the University of Edinburgh. At university he was a member of The Speculative Society. After the usual attendance on the classes in the faculties of Arts and of Law, D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Duncan (minister)
Henry Duncan FRSE (8 October 1774 – 12 February 1846) was a Scottish minister, geologist and social reformer. The minister of Ruthwell in Dumfriesshire, he founded the world's first mutual savings bank that would eventually form part of the Trustee Savings Bank. He served as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1839. At the Disruption has left the Church of Scotland and sided with the Free Church. He was also a publisher, a philanthropist and an author, writing novels as well as works of science and religion. Early life Duncan was born in 1774 at Lochrutton, Kirkcudbrightshire, where his father, George Duncan, was minister. As a boy he met the poet Robert Burns, who visited Lochrutton Manse. Duncan was educated in Dumfries at the Academy. After studying for two sessions at St. Andrews University he was sent to Liverpool to begin commercial life, and under the patronage of his relative, Dr. James Currie, the biographer of Robert Burns, his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Douglas (d
William Douglas may refer to: Earls of Douglas *William Douglas, 1st Earl of Douglas (c. 1327–1384), Scottish magnate *William Douglas, 6th Earl of Douglas (c. 1424–1440), Scottish nobleman *William Douglas, 8th Earl of Douglas (1425–1452), Scottish nobleman of Angus *William Douglas, 2nd Earl of Angus (c. 1398–1437), Scottish nobleman and soldier *William Douglas, 9th Earl of Angus (died 1591), Scottish nobleman and supporter of Mary, Queen of Scots *William Douglas, 10th Earl of Angus (1552–1611), Scottish nobleman *William Douglas, 1st Marquess of Douglas and 11th Earl of Angus (1589–1660), Scottish nobleman of Morton *William Douglas, 6th Earl of Morton (c. 1540–1606), Scottish nobleman *William Douglas, 7th Earl of Morton (1582–1648), Scottish nobleman Lords of Douglas *William I, Lord of Douglas (died c. 1214), medieval nobleman of Flemish origin *William Longleg, Lord of Douglas (c. 1220–c. 1274), Scoto-Norman nobleman *William the Hardy, Lord of Dougla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Cullen, Baron Cullen Of Whitekirk
William Douglas Cullen, Baron Cullen of Whitekirk, (born 18 November 1937) is a former senior member of the Scottish judiciary. He formerly served as Lord Justice General and Lord President of the Court of Session, and was an additional Lord of Appeal in the House of Lords prior to the transfer of its judicial functions to the Supreme Court. Early life William Douglas Cullen was educated at the High School of Dundee and the universities of St Andrews and Edinburgh. He was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1962 and was Standing Junior Counsel to Her Majesty's Customs and Excise from 1970 to 1973. He was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1973 and served as an Advocate Depute from 1978 to 1981. From 1984 to 1986 Cullen served as Chairperson of the influential Edinburgh conservationist group the Cockburn Association. Judicial career Lord Cullen was a chairman of the Medical Appeal Tribunals from 1977 until his appointment as a judge in 1985. He was appointed a Senator of the Col ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Society Of Edinburgh
The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established in 1783. , there are around 1,800 Fellows. The Society covers a broader selection of fields than the Royal Society of London, including literature and history. Fellowship includes people from a wide range of disciplines – science & technology, arts, humanities, medicine, social science, business, and public service. History At the start of the 18th century, Edinburgh's intellectual climate fostered many clubs and societies (see Scottish Enlightenment). Though there were several that treated the arts, sciences and medicine, the most prestigious was the Society for the Improvement of Medical Knowledge, commonly referred to as the Medical Society of Edinburgh, co-founded by the mathematician Colin Maclaurin in 1731. Maclaurin was unhappy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthur Melville Clark
Arthur Melville Clark FRSE (20 August 1895 – 21 March 1990) was a Scottish educationalist and author of several academic books about English literature and poetry. Life He was born in Edinburgh on 20 August 1895 the son of Margaret Moyes (née McLachlan) and James Clark. He was schooled at Daniel Stewart’s College. He studied at both the University of Oxford and the University of Edinburgh. On graduation in 1920 he began lecturing in English language and literature at the University of Reading. From 1928 to 1946 he was a Reader in English Literature at the University of Edinburgh. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1928, his proposers including Francis Albert Eley Crew. In 1947 the University of Edinburgh awarded him an honorary doctorate (DLitt). He died in Edinburgh on 21 March 1990. Other positions *President of the Speculative Society 1926 to 1929 *President of the Edinburgh branch of the Scott Club 1957-58 War service Clark was awarded the K ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blackballing
Blackballing is a rejection in a traditional form of secret ballot, where a white ball or ballot constitutes a vote in support and a black ball signifies opposition. The system is typically used where an organization's rules provide that one or two objections, rather than an at-least-50% share of votes, are sufficient to defeat a proposition. Since the seventeenth century, these rules have commonly applied to elections to membership of many gentlemen's clubs and similar institutions such as Masonic lodges and fraternities. A large supply of black and white balls is provided for voters. Each voter audibly casts a single ball into the ballot box under cover of the box, or of a combination of a cloth and the box itself, so that observers can see who votes but not how they are voting. When all voting is complete, the box is opened and the balls displayed: all present can immediately see the result, without any means of knowing which members are objecting. Process The principle of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 – 7 May 1873) was an English philosopher, political economist, Member of Parliament (MP) and civil servant. One of the most influential thinkers in the history of classical liberalism, he contributed widely to social theory, political theory, and political economy. Dubbed "the most influential English-speaking philosopher of the nineteenth century", he conceived of liberty as justifying the freedom of the individual in opposition to unlimited state and social control. Mill was a proponent of utilitarianism, an ethical theory developed by his predecessor Jeremy Bentham. He contributed to the investigation of scientific methodology, though his knowledge of the topic was based on the writings of others, notably William Whewell, John Herschel, and Auguste Comte, and research carried out for Mill by Alexander Bain. He engaged in written debate with Whewell. A member of the Liberal Party and author of the early feminist work ''The Subjection o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
