John Alexander Smith (21 April 1863 – 19 December 1939) was a
British idealist philosopher, who was the Jowett Lecturer of philosophy at Balliol College, Oxford from 1896 to 1910, and
Waynflete Professor of Moral and Metaphysical Philosophy, carrying a Fellowship at Magdalen College in the same university, from 1910 to 1936. He was born in
Dingwall
Dingwall ( sco, Dingwal, gd, Inbhir Pheofharain ) is a town and a royal burgh in the Highland council area of Scotland. It has a population of 5,491. It was an east-coast harbour that now lies inland. Dingwall Castle was once the biggest cast ...
and died in
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
.
Life and work
Smith was educated at Inverness Academy, the
Edinburgh Collegiate School
Edinburgh Collegiate School was located at 27/28 Charlotte Square, Edinburgh. The school was established in 1868.
Notable former pupils
* Thomas Hastie Bryce (1862–1946), anatomist, medical author and archaeologist
* W. K. Burton (1856–189 ...
,
Edinburgh University
The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 1582 ...
(where he was Ferguson classical scholar in 1884), and at
Balliol College
Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...
,
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
, to which he was admitted as Warner exhibitioner and honorary scholar in Hilary term 1884. His most visible accomplishments were his work with
William David Ross
Sir William David Ross (15 April 1877 – 5 May 1971), known as David Ross but usually cited as W. D. Ross, was a Scottish Aristotelian philosopher, translator, WWI veteran, civil servant, and university administrator. His best-known wor ...
on a 12-volume translation 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 phil ...
, and his
Gifford Lectures
The Gifford Lectures () are an annual series of lectures which were established in 1887 by the will of Adam Gifford, Lord Gifford. Their purpose is to "promote and diffuse the study of natural theology in the widest sense of the term – in o ...
for 1929–1931 on the ''Heritage of Idealism'', which were never published.
The 'Moral' tag in his Professorial title disappeared with
R. G. Collingwood
Robin George Collingwood (; 22 February 1889 – 9 January 1943) was an English philosopher, historian and archaeologist. He is best known for his philosophical works, including ''The Principles of Art'' (1938) and the posthumously published ...
's appointment in 1936. Smith expressed some unease about the combination of 'moral' and 'metaphysical' in his inaugural lecture ''Knowing and Acting'': The framer of the Chair's regulations, he remarks, describes the Professor's duties 'in a way which rather sets a problem than furnishes guidance. The Professor, he says, 'shall lecture and give instruction on the principles and history of Mental Philosophy, and on its connexion with Ethics.' He distinguishes two great departments of philosophical thought — so recognizedly different as already to be assigned for separate treatment to two other Professors in the University — and he enjoins that they shall be afresh discussed in their connexion with one another, yet with respect to their distinction. It can scarcely be his meaning that his Professor should attempt the invidious task of harmonising the possibly divergent accounts given of Logic by the
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 ...
and of Ethics by
Whyte's Professor, of performing in public the higher synthesis of his colleagues' several contributions to philosophic truth, or — less arrogantly — of indicating or reinforcing their latent consonance. Such a task, had it been required or suggested, I could not have undertaken.'
Smith interpreted the requirements of his professorship as metaphysical, though he is often referred to as simply a Professor of Moral Philosophy as in Alastair Horne's biography of
Harold Macmillan
Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, (10 February 1894 – 29 December 1986) was a British Conservative statesman and politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1957 to 1963. Caricatured as "Supermac", he ...
(1894–1986): '... he
acmillanrecalled the words with which his Professor of Moral Philosophy, J.A. Smith, had opened a lecture course in 1914: 'Nothing that you will learn in the course of your studies will be of the slightest possible use to you in after life – save only this – if you work hard and diligently you should be able to detect when a man is talking rot, and that, in my view, is the main, if not the sole, purpose of education.
Smith's early and perhaps predominant interests were literary and philological, as he makes clear in ''Contemporary British Philosophy, Second Series'', ed. J.H. Muirhead, London: George Allen & Unwin, 1925:228. At the turn of the twentieth century he espoused a form of realism but by the time of his appointment to the Waynflete Professorship had come strongly under the sway of the Italian philosopher,
Benedetto Croce
Benedetto Croce (; 25 February 1866 – 20 November 1952)
was an Italian idealist philosopher, historian, and politician, who wrote on numerous topics, including philosophy, history, historiography and aesthetics. In most regards, Croce was a lib ...
(1866–1952). The philosophy of
Giovanni Gentile
Giovanni Gentile (; 30 May 1875 – 15 April 1944) was an Italian neo-Hegelian idealist philosopher, educator, and fascist politician. The self-styled "philosopher of Fascism", he was influential in providing an intellectual foundation for I ...
(1875–1944) later exerted a powerful influence.
'Modern Greats' - the creation of 'Philosophy, Politics and Economics'
Smith played an innovative part in the institution of the
Philosophy, Politics and Economics degree at the University of Oxford.
'In 1910,
ilbert
Ilbert is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Courtenay Ilbert (1841–1924), British lawyer and civil servant
* Courtenay Adrian Ilbert
Courtenay Adrian Ilbert (1888–1956), was a British civil engineer interested in horol ...
Murray
Murray may refer to:
Businesses
* Murray (bicycle company), an American manufacturer of low-cost bicycles
* Murrays, an Australian bus company
* Murray International Trust, a Scottish investment trust
* D. & W. Murray Limited, an Australian who ...
had ... to preside over a committee to discuss the possibility of instituting a new final 'schools' to cover part of the Greats ground.
The main proponent of the innovation was J.A. Smith, the idiosyncratic and combative Waynflete Professor of Philosophy. He argued with Murray for 'Greats without Greek',, i.e. not for a
reform of the Greats school but for the institution of a new Greekless final course for philosophy students). Why should all students wanting to study philosophy have to do so within the
classical framework? Plato and Aristotle in good translations should give the aspiring philosopher all that he needed - why should he have to bother with often very difficult language? 'Greats
without Greek' would reduce the upper-class flavour of Oxford by opening a respectable philosophy school to students who did not come from the great Greek-teaching public schools. There was
heat on either side of the debate, not perhaps greatly reduced by Smith, who wrote to Murray, 'except in opinion, I am sure we do not differ'
The plans for a new school, interrupted by the 1914-18 war and much internal wrangling before and after, finally led in 1920 to the establishment of the Final Honour School of Philosophy, Politics and
Economics
Smith's role in the emergence of the final scheme, which extended beyond his original idea, is not clear but he evidently felt free to philosophise on economics, one of the new school's components.
Professor
Lionel (Lord) Robbins, a lecturer in economics at
New College in the mid-1920s, was not impressed. In his Autobiography he reflected ruefully that discussions of Modern Greats:
'... tended to be swamped by the then ruling school of philosophers, a race of men who were all too apt to assume that their own discipline gave them spiritual jurisdiction over all, or
nearly all, others, regardless of their degree or relevant technical qualification - to hear, for instance, J.A. Smith, Waynflete Professor of Moral Philosophy (sic) pontificating on the
methodology of economics, with which his acquaintance was zero, was to gain new conceptions of human absurdity.
Robbins had a point. In
Sir Roy Harrod
Sir Henry Roy Forbes Harrod (13 February 1900 – 8 March 1978) was an English economist. He is best known for writing ''The Life of John Maynard Keynes'' (1951) and for the development of the Harrod–Domar model, which he and Evsey Domar devel ...
's ''The Prof'', London: Macmillan, 1959: 18–21, there is a sharply observed if unsympathetic account of Smith's contribution to a debate on relativity theory with
F.A. Lindemann, then
Dr Lee's Professor of Experimental Philosophy The Dr Lee's Professorships are three named statutory professorships of the University of Oxford. They were created in 1919, and are named after Matthew Lee (1695–1755) who had endowed three readerships at Christ Church, Oxford, in the 19th cent ...
hysicsat Oxford, shortly after the First World War. Smith endeavoured to prove that the theory was false.
Biographies
There is a good account of Smith's life and career in
Sir David Ross' entry in the ''Dictionary of National Biography, 1931–40'' (Oxford: OUP). See also Mabbott, J.D. ''Oxford Memories''. Thornton, 1986, p. 74; and
Ayer, A.J. ''Part of My Life''. Collins, 1977, pp. 77, 144, 152.
A.N. Wilson
Andrew Norman Wilson (born 27 October 1950)["A. N. Wilson"](_blank)
''Encyclopædia Britannica''. 's biography of
C.S. Lewis
CS, C-S, C.S., Cs, cs, or cs. may refer to:
Job titles
* Chief Secretary (Hong Kong)
* Chief superintendent, a rank in the British and several other police forces
* Company secretary, a senior position in a private sector company or public se ...
, a colleague of Smith's at Magdalen, makes reference to Smith (Wilson, A.N ''C.S. Lewis: A Life''. Collins, 1990, p. 102) as does Lewis' voluminous published correspondence. For personal glimpses:
Buchan, John ''Memory Hold-the-Door''. Hodder & Stoughton, 1940, p. 49;
Jones, L.E ''An Edwardian Youth'', Macmillan, 1956; Scott, D. ''A.D. Lindsay''. Basil Blackwell, 1971: 41, 43, 45, 51, 52, 113;
Barker, Sir Ernest ''Age and Youth''. Oxford University Press,1953, p. 319;
Matheson, P.E. ''The Life of Hastings Rashdall''. Oxford University Press, 1928, pp. 127, 221;
Jones, Sir Henry &
Muirhead, J.H. ''The Life and Philosophy of Edward Caird''. Thoemmes, 1991, pp. 156–7;
Joliffe, J. ''Raymond Asquith: Life and Letters''. Collins, 1980, p. 90.
A different side of Smith's personality from that experienced by Lionel Robbins was seen by
A.D. Lindsay
Alexander Dunlop Lindsay, 1st Baron Lindsay of Birker (14 May 1879 - 18 March 1952),
known as Sandie Lindsay, ...
(Master of Balliol 1924-49):
'On Saturday night I was in J.A.. Smith's room playing bridge with him and
Cyril Bailey
Cyril Bailey, CBE, FBA (1871–1957) was an English classicist. He was a fellow and tutor at Balliol College, Oxford, from 1902 to 1939.
Early life
He was born on 13 April 1871 to Alfred Bailey, a barrister and legal scholar, and his wife Fann ...
... and an undergraduate whose name I didn't catch but who looked very nice and beautiful - there-and-back flannel collar with a gold safety-pin - that sort of thing. A head appears around the door. J.A. says, "Well?" "Oh I just looked in to see if you were doing anything" - and five more beautiful young men stroll in and lie about in chairs or prepare drinks for the whole party, making genial remarks on everyone's play and called the venerable J.A. "J.A."'.
For philosophical assessments, see Coates, A. ''A Sceptical Examination of Contemporary British Philosophy''. Brentano's, 1929, pp. 163–87; and Patrick, James ''The Magdalen Metaphysicals''. Mercer University Press, pp. 47–75. In Sir Roy Harrod's ''The Prof'', London: Macmillan, 1959: 18–21, there is a sharply observed if unsympathetic account of Smith's contribution to a debate on relativity theory with F.A. Lindemann, then Dr Lee's Professor in Experimental Philosophy
hysicsat Oxford, shortly after the First World War.
Cultural references
Smith was the subject of a
clerihew
A clerihew () is a whimsical, four-line biographical poem of a type invented by Edmund Clerihew Bentley. The first line is the name of the poem's subject, usually a famous person, and the remainder puts the subject in an absurd light or reveals som ...
which acquired some currency at Oxford:
[The Conrad Russell of these letters was the farmer, Conrad Russell (1878-1947), not the historian, Conrad Russell (1937-2004).]
"J. A. Smith
Said Christianity was a myth;
When he grew calmer
They sent for Mr Palmer."
The reference to 'Mr Palmer' is to the Reverend Edwin Palmer (1824–95), Corpus Professor Latin at Oxford, 1870–95; formerly Fellow of Balliol College.
Publications
*
*'Introduction' to ''The Ethics of Aristotle'', tr. D. P. Chase, London : J.M. Dent & Sons, 1911, vii-xxviii. Erratum : on xiii, 13 lines from bottom 'man' should read 'main'.
*'On Feeling', ''Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society'', XIV, 1913–14, 49–75.
*'General Relative Clauses in Greek', ''The Classical Review'', 31, 1917, 69–71.
*'Progress as an Ideal of Action', ''Progress and History'', ed. F.S. Marvin, London: Oxford University Press, 1921, 295-314.
*'Progress in Philosophy', ''Progress and History'', ed. F.S. Marvin, London: Oxford University Press, 1921, 273-294.
*'The Contribution of Greece and Rome', ''The Unity of Western Civilization'', 2nd. ed., ed. F.S. Marvin, London: Oxford University Press, 1922, 69-90.
*Review of T.L. Heath, ''A History of Greek Mathematics'', ''The Classical Review'', 37, 1923, 69–71.
*''The Nature of Art'', Oxford, 1924.
*'Philosophy As the Development of the Notion and Reality of Self-Consciousness', ''Contemporary British Philosophy: Second Series'', ed. J.H. Muirhead, London: George Allen & Unwin, 1925, 227–244.
*''Foreword'',
Syed Zafarul Hasan
Syed Zafarul Hasan (14 February 1885 – 19 June 1949) was a prominent twentieth-century Pakistani Muslim philosopher.
Biography
He was the eldest son of Khan Sahib Syed Diwan Mohammad.
Hasan was educated at Aligarh (M.A., LL. B.) and obtain ...
, ''Realism'', Cambridge, 1928. On Hasan
*'Artificial Languages', ''Society for Pure English, Tract XXXIV'', Oxford, 1930, 469–77.
*''Translation of Aristotle, de Anima''. W.D. Ross ed.''The Works of Aristotle'' III. Oxford University Press, 1931.
Attributed authorship
*''Wanted ! A New School at Oxford'', Oxford, 1909. Robert Currie tentatively attributes to Smith this pamphlet, which proposes 'a modern-side Greats, based on philosophy' similar in the event to the school of Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) founded in 1920. (Currie, R. 'The Arts and Social Studies, 1914–1939', ''The History of the University of Oxford'', v. VIII, ''The Twentieth Century,'' ed. Harrison, B. Clarendon Press, 1995, 112.
Archive material
A small quantity of Smith's papers is held at Balliol College, Oxford; the main body is archived at Magdalen College, Oxford.
References
External links
Biography of Smithby Dr Michael W. DeLashmutt fo
Templeton Press' site for the Gifford Lectures
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, John Alexander
1863 births
1939 deaths
20th-century British philosophers
Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford
Fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford
Idealists
People educated at Edinburgh Collegiate School
Presidents of the Aristotelian Society
Relativity critics
Waynflete Professors of Metaphysical Philosophy