The Grote Chair of the Philosophy of Mind and Logic is an

endowed chair A financial endowment is a legal structure for managing, and in many cases indefinitely perpetuating, a pool of financial, real estate, or other investments for a specific purpose according to the will of its founders and donors. Endowments are of ...

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

Origin

Along with

Moral Philosophy Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concerns ma ...

, Philosophy of Mind and Logic (originally called Logic and the Philosophy of the Human Mind) was one of two

Philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

chairs established at the founding of

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

. The first Mind and Logic professorship was awarded to John Hoppus, a Congregational minister, who held the position from 1830 to 1866.

George Grote George Grote (; 17 November 1794 – 18 June 1871) was an English political radical and classical historian. He is now best known for his major work, the voluminous ''History of Greece''. Early life George Grote was born at Clay Hill near Be ...

, one of the college's founders and a member of its governing council, objected to the appointment on the grounds that the college was intended to be non-sectarian and that therefore a philosophy chair should not be held by a minister of religion. Because of this incident, Grote resigned from the council in 1830. In 1866 Grote, who had returned to the council in 1849, was instrumental in preventing the awarding of the chair to

James Martineau James Martineau (; 21 April 1805 – 11 January 1900) was a British religious philosopher influential in the history of Unitarianism. For 45 years he was Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy and Political Economy in Manchester New College ( ...

, a Unitarian minister, for the same reasons. Grote's preferred candidate,

George Croom Robertson George Croom Robertson (10 March 1842 – 20 September 1892) was a Scottish philosopher. He sat on the Committee of the National Society for Women's Suffrage and his wife, Caroline Anna Croom Robertson was a college administrator. Biography ...

, was appointed to the chair in 1867. Grote's will provided an

endowment Endowment most often refers to: *A term for human penis size It may also refer to: Finance *Financial endowment, pertaining to funds or property donated to institutions or individuals (e.g., college endowment) *Endowment mortgage, a mortgage to b ...

of £6000 for the Chair of Philosophy of Mind and Logic, with the stipulation that the income could not be awarded to a holder of the chair who was a minister of any religion. Instead, the income was to be held back and reinvested until a lay person was again appointed. Grote died in 1871 and in 1876, two years before her own death, his widow

Harriet Grote Harriet Grote (1792–1878) was an English biographer. She was married to George Grote and was acquatined with many of the English philosophical radicals of the earlier 19th century. A longterm friend described her as "absolutely unconventional" ...

passed on the £6000 to the college.

Grote Professors of the Philosophy of Mind and Logic

*1867-1892

*1892-1903

James Sully James Sully (3 March 1842 – 1 November 1923) was an English psychologist. Biography James Sully was born at Bridgwater, Somerset, the son of J. W. Sully, a liberal Baptist merchant and ship-owner. He was educated at the Independent Colle ...

*1903-1911

Carveth Read Carveth Read (1848–1931) was a 19th- and 20th-century British philosopher and logician. Life He was born 16 March 1848 in Falmouth, Cornwall, England. He was the third son of Edward Read and Elizabeth Truscott. He attended the University o ...

*1911-1928

Charles Spearman Charles Edward Spearman, FRS (10 September 1863 – 17 September 1945) was an English psychologist known for work in statistics, as a pioneer of factor analysis, and for Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. He also did seminal work on mod ...

*1929-1944 John Macmurray *1944-1959

A.J. Ayer Sir Alfred Jules "Freddie" Ayer (; 29 October 1910 – 27 June 1989), usually cited as A. J. Ayer, was an English philosopher known for his promotion of logical positivism, particularly in his books ''Language, Truth, and Logic'' (1936) an ...

*1960-1963

Stuart Hampshire Sir Stuart Newton Hampshire (1 October 1914 – 13 June 2004) was an English philosopher, literary critic and university administrator. He was one of the antirationalist Oxford thinkers who gave a new direction to moral and political thought ...

*1963-1982

Richard Wollheim Richard Arthur Wollheim (5 May 1923 − 4 November 2003) was a British philosopher noted for original work on mind and emotions, especially as related to the visual arts, specifically, painting. Wollheim served as the president of the British So ...

*The chair was vacant from 1982 to 1988 *1988-1998

Ted Honderich Ted Honderich (born 30 January 1933) is a Canadian-born British professor of philosophy, who was Grote Professor Emeritus of the Philosophy of Mind and Logic, University College London. Biography Honderich was born Edgar Dawn Ross Honderich on ...

*1998-2001

Malcolm Budd Malcolm Budd (born 23 December 1941) is a British philosopher. Biography Budd studied mathematics and philosophy at Jesus College, Cambridge. He taught at University College London from 1970 until 2001, and was appointed the Grote Professor ...

*2001-2015 Paul Snowdon *2018- John Hyman

Origin

Grote Professors of the Philosophy of Mind and Logic

References

Further reading