Harold Henry Joachim, FBA (; 28 May 1868 – 30 July 1938) was a British idealist philosopher. A disciple of

Francis Herbert Bradley Francis Herbert Bradley (30 January 1846 – 18 September 1924) was a British idealist philosopher. His most important work was '' Appearance and Reality'' (1893). Life Bradley was born at Clapham, Surrey, England (now part of the Gre ...

, whose posthumous papers he edited, Joachim is now identified with the later days of the British idealist movement. He is generally credited with the definitive formulation of the

coherence theory of truth Coherence theories of truth characterize truth as a property of whole systems of propositions that can be ascribed to individual propositions only derivatively according to their coherence with the whole. While modern coherence theorists hold that ...

, in his book ''The Nature of Truth'' (1906).Harold Henry Joachim (1868—1938) (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
/ref> He was also a scholar of

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ph ...

and

Spinoza Baruch (de) Spinoza (born Bento de Espinosa; later as an author and a correspondent ''Benedictus de Spinoza'', anglicized to ''Benedict de Spinoza''; 24 November 1632 – 21 February 1677) was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, ...

Life

Harold Henry Joachim was born in London, the son of a wool merchant who had come to England as a young man from

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

. He was educated at Harrow School and Balliol College, Oxford, where he was a pupil of R. L. Nettleship. He was elected to a Prize Fellowship at Merton College in 1890, and in 1892 became a philosophy lecturer at the

University of St Andrews (Aien aristeuein) , motto_lang = grc , mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best , established = , type = Public research university Ancient university , endowment ...

. Returning to Oxford in 1894, he was lecturer at Balliol until becoming a Fellow and Tutor at Merton in 1897. In 1907 he married his first cousin, a daughter of the violinist

Joseph Joachim Joseph Joachim (28 June 1831 – 15 August 1907) was a Hungarian violinist, conductor, composer and teacher who made an international career, based in Hanover and Berlin. A close collaborator of Johannes Brahms, he is widely regarded as one of t ...

. He became

Wykeham Professor The University of Oxford has three statutory professorships named after William of Wykeham, who founded New College. Logic The Wykeham Professorship in Logic was established in 1859, although it was not known as the Wykeham chair until later. I ...

of Logic of the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

from 1919, succeeding the realist

John Cook Wilson John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second ...

, and occupied the chair until his death. Whilst at Oxford he taught the American poet

T.S. Eliot Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and editor.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National B ...

. Joachim was a nephew of the great 19th Century violinist

, and was himself a talented amateur violinist.

Legacy

The coherence theory is nowadays viewed as part of a class of theories called ''robust'' or ''inflationary'' accounts of truth. In this class, it is a rival to the correspondence and the pragmatist theories. Both

Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, ...

, arguing for the former, and

William James William James (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was an American philosopher, historian, and psychologist, and the first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States. James is considered to be a leading thinker of the lat ...

, arguing for the latter, cited Joachim's text as a paradigm of what they thought was wrong about the coherence theory.

Works

''Study of the Ethics of Spinoza (Ethica Ordine Geometrico Demonstrata)''
(1901)
''The Nature of Truth''
(1906) * Aristotle'
''De lineis insecabilibus''
(1908) translator
''The Platonic Distinction Between 'True' and 'False' Pleasures and Pains''
article in ''Philosophical Review'' September 1911, Volume XX, pages 471 to 497 * '' Immediate Experience and Mediation'' (1919)
''Aristotle on Coming-To-Be & Passing-Away (De Generatione et Corruptione)''
(1926; reprinted 1999) * ''Logical Studies'' (1948) * ''Aristotle: The Nicomachean Ethics: A Commentary, edited by D A Rees'' (1951)
''Descartes's Rules for the Direction of the Mind''
(1957) edited from notes by

John Austin John Austin may refer to: Arts and entertainment * John P. Austin (1906–1997), American set decorator * Johnny Austin (1910–1983), American musician * John Austin (author) (fl. 1940s), British novelist Military * John Austin (soldier) (180 ...

and Errol Harris He was probably involved, if uncredited, in the editing of Bradley's collected works, including the ''Collected Essays'' with Bradley's sister Marian de Glehn, and ''Ethical Studies''.

References

External links

* *
''Coherence Theory of Truth'' by Harold H. Joachim
excerpts from ''The Nature of Truth'' and related comments in a document on the website of the philosophy department of

Lander University Lander University is a public university in Greenwood, South Carolina. Campus and housing Lander University is located approximately one half-mile from uptown Greenwood, South Carolina. The main campus sits on 190 acres of land, though this doe ...

*
''Harold Henry Joachim (1868-1938)''
by Nicholas Griffin, in

The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy The ''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' (''IEP'') is a scholarly online encyclopedia, dealing with philosophy, philosophical topics, and philosophers. The IEP combines open access publication with peer reviewed publication of original pape ...

, article first published 3 May 2008 {{DEFAULTSORT:Joachim, Harold Henry 1868 births 1938 deaths British philosophers Wykeham Professors of Logic Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford Fellows of Merton College, Oxford Idealists People educated at Harrow School Spinoza scholars