Richard Bevan Braithwaite (15 January 1900 – 21 April 1990) was an English philosopher who specialized in the philosophy of science, ethics, and the

philosophy of religion Philosophy of religion is "the philosophical examination of the central themes and concepts involved in religious traditions". Philosophical discussions on such topics date from ancient times, and appear in the earliest known texts concerning ph ...

Life

Braithwaite was born in

Banbury Banbury is a historic market town on the River Cherwell in Oxfordshire, South East England. It had a population of 54,335 at the 2021 Census. Banbury is a significant commercial and retail centre for the surrounding area of north Oxfordshir ...

, Oxfordshire, son of the historian of early Quaker history,

William Charles Braithwaite William Charles Braithwaite (23 December 1862 – 28 January 1922) was a British historian, specialising in the early history of the Society of Friends (Quakers). Braithwaite was born on 23 December 1862, the son of Joseph Bevan Braithwaite (1818� ...

. He was educated at

Sidcot School Sidcot School is a British co-educational independent school for boarding and day pupils, associated with the Religious Society of Friends. It is one of seven Quaker schools in England. The school is based in the Mendip Hills near the village of ...

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

(1911–14), and

Bootham School Bootham School is an independent Quaker boarding school, on Bootham in the city of York in England. It accepts boys and girls ages 3–19, and had an enrolment of 605 pupils in 2016. It is one of seven Quaker schools in England. The schoo ...

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

, 1914–18. As a conscientious objector in the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, he served in the

Friends' Ambulance Unit The Friends' Ambulance Unit (FAU) was a volunteer ambulance service, founded by individual members of the British Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), in line with their Peace Testimony. The FAU operated from 1914–1919, 1939–1946 and 19 ...

. He entered

King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the cit ...

, in 1919 to study physics and mathematics, became an

Apostle An apostle (), in its literal sense, is an emissary, from Ancient Greek ἀπόστολος (''apóstolos''), literally "one who is sent off", from the verb ἀποστέλλειν (''apostéllein''), "to send off". The purpose of such sending ...

, and gained a BA in 1923 and MA in 1926. He was a Fellow of King's College, Cambridge from 1924 to 1990. He was appointed Cambridge University Lecturer in Moral Sciences in 1928. He was a lecturer in moral science at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

from 1934 to 1953, then Knightbridge Professor of Moral Philosophy there from 1953 to 1967. He was president of the Aristotelian Society from 1946 to 1947, and was elected a Fellow of the

British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars spa ...

in 1957. He was married (secondly) to the computational linguist and philosopher

Margaret Masterman Margaret Masterman (4 May 1910 – 1 April 1986) was a British linguist and philosopher, most known for her pioneering work in the field of computational linguistics and especially machine translation. She founded the Cambridge Language R ...

, with whom he founded the

Epiphany Philosophers The Epiphany Philosophers was a group of philosophers, scientists and religious (priests, nuns and monks) who met regularly and published between 1950 and 2010. The focus of their endeavours was on the relationship between science and religion. Fou ...

a group of (largely) Anglicans and Quakers seeking a new view of the relationship between philosophy and science.

Work

Although he was positivistically inclined, Braithwaite was a Christian, having been brought up a Quaker and becoming an Anglican later. According to theologian

Alister McGrath Alister Edgar McGrath (; born 1953) is a Northern Irish theologian, Anglican priest, intellectual historian, scientist, Christian apologist, and public intellectual. He currently holds the Andreas Idreos Professorship in Science and Religion i ...

, Braithwaite's 1955 Eddington Memorial Lecture "An Empiricist's View of the Nature of Religious Belief" is to date the most widely cited publication (e.g. by Anglican priest

Don Cupitt Don Cupitt (born 22 May 1934) is an English philosopher of religion and scholar of Christian theology. He has been an Anglican priest and a lecturer in the University of Cambridge, though is better known as a popular writer, broadcaster and comm ...

) from a genre of 1970s–1980s theological works arguing that "God" and "religion" are human constructs—having no independent reality of their own—and that human dignity and freedom may best be advanced by systematic deconstruction of these two ideas, although Braithwaite himself had little sympathy for vague claims like these. His major work was his book ''Scientific Explanation: A Study of the Function of Theory, Probability and Law in Science'' (1953) but, like his Eddington Lecture it was his inaugural lecture ("Theory of Games as a Tool for the Moral Philosopher") that was his more original contribution: although a logician and philosopher of science, he had been elected to a chair of moral philosophy (ethics) about which he considered he knew little. His inaugural lecture attempted to bring what he did know about the theory of games into some relation with ethical reasoning and, in doing that, he effectively started a whole new field of study, namely, how game-theoretic considerations are related to ethical ones. After his retirement in 1967 Braithwaite was a visiting professor at

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...

where he lectured on game theory and encouraged one of his students, Alexander Rosenberg, to apply the approach of ''Scientific Explanation'' to economics. It was Braithwaite's poker that

Ludwig Wittgenstein Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He is con ...

reportedly brandished at Karl Popper during their confrontation at a

Moral Sciences Club The Cambridge University Moral Sciences Club, founded in October 1878, is a philosophy discussion group that meets weekly at the University of Cambridge during term time. Speakers are invited to present a paper with a strict upper time limit of ...

meeting in Braithwaite's rooms in King's. The implement subsequently disappeared. Braithwaite was a friend of

Frank P. Ramsey Frank Plumpton Ramsey (; 22 February 1903 – 19 January 1930) was a British philosopher, mathematician, and economist who made major contributions to all three fields before his death at the age of 26. He was a close friend of Ludwig Wittgenste ...

(about whom he was interviewed by

D.H. Mellor David Hugh Mellor (; 10 July 1938 – 21 June 2020) was a British philosopher. He was a Professor of Philosophy and Pro-Vice-Chancellor, later Professor Emeritus, of Cambridge University. Biography Mellor was born in London on 10 July 1938, a ...

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering ...

in 1978) and, after Ramsey's early death, edited a collection of his papers. A

Festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...

, ''Science, Belief and Behaviour: Essays in Honour of R. B. Braithwaite,'' edited by

D. H. Mellor David Hugh Mellor (; 10 July 1938 – 21 June 2020) was a British philosopher. He was a Professor of Philosophy and Pro-Vice-Chancellor, later Professor Emeritus, of Cambridge University. Biography Mellor was born in London on 10 July 1938, ...

, was published in 1980. It included essay contributions from Mellor himself and Ian Hacking amongst others.

Select publications

* '' Moral principles and inductive policies'' (1952) rom ''Proceedings of the British Academy'' 36 (1950): 51–68.* '' Scientific Explanation: A Study of the Function of Theory, Probability and Law in Science'' (1953) * '' Theory of Games as a Tool for the Moral Philosopher'' (1955) * '' An Empiricist's View of the Nature of Religious Belief'' (1955) For a more complete list of works see "Bibliography of the philosophical writings of R. B. Braithwaite" or his entry at

PhilPapers PhilPapers is an interactive academic database of Academic journal, journal articles in philosophy. It is maintained by the Centre for Digital Philosophy at the University of Western Ontario, and as of 2022, it has "394,867 registered users, incl ...

References

External links

Richard Bevan Braithwaite
– 1930s photographic portrait by

Ramsey Ramsey may refer to: Geography British Isles * Ramsey, Cambridgeshire, a small market town in England * Ramsey, Essex, a village near Harwich, England ** Ramsey and Parkeston, a civil parish formerly called just "Ramsey" * Ramsey, Isle of Man, t ...

& Muspratt at the National Portrait Gallery, London {{DEFAULTSORT:Braithwaite, R. B. 1900 births 1990 deaths Alumni of King's College, Cambridge Analytic philosophers Anglican philosophers Aristotelian philosophers British conscientious objectors British ethicists Cambridge University Moral Sciences Club Converts to Anglicanism from Quakerism 20th-century English philosophers Fellows of King's College, Cambridge Fellows of the British Academy Former Quakers Moral philosophers People associated with the Friends' Ambulance Unit People educated at Bootham School People from Banbury Philosophers of education Philosophers of ethics and morality Philosophers of religion Philosophers of science Presidents of the Aristotelian Society 20th-century Quakers Knightbridge Professors of Philosophy

Life

Work

Select publications

References

Further reading

External links