John Alexander Smith
Encyclopedia
John Alexander Smith was an Idealist philosopher, who was the Jowett Lecturer of philosophy at Balliol College, Oxford, 1896 - 1910, and Waynflete Professor of Moral and Metaphysical Philosophy, carrying a Fellowship at Magdalen College in the same university, from 1910 to 1936.
Smith was educated at Inverness Academy, at the collegiate school, Edinburgh, at Edinburgh University (where he was Ferguson classical scholar in 1884), and at Balliol College
, Oxford
, to which he was admitted as Warner exhibitioner and honorary scholar in Hilary term 1884. His most visible accomplishments was his work with William David Ross on a 12-volume commentary on Aristotle, and his Gifford Lectures
for 1929 - 1931 on the Heritage of Idealism, which were never published.
The 'Moral' tag in his Professorial title disappeared with R.G. Collingwood's appointment in 1936. Smith expressed some unease about the combination of 'moral' and 'metaphysical' in his inaugural lecture Knowing and Acting, Oxford : OUP, 1910 : 4-5): The framer of the Chair's regulations, he remarks, describes the Professor's duties 'in a way which rather sets a probem 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 though86t - 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 harmonizing the possibly divergent accounts given of Logic by the Wykeham Professor 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
(1894-1986) : '... he [Macmillan] recalled 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. (A. Horne, Macmillan, London : Macmillan, 1988, I : 27).
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 Wayneflete Professorship had come strongly under the sway of the Italian philosopher, Benedetto Croce
(1866-1952). The philosophy of Giovanni Gentile
(1875-1944) later exerted a powerful influence.
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 J.D. Mabbott, Oxford Memories, Oxford : Thornton, 1986 : 74, 77. A.N. Wilson's biography of C.S. Lewis, a colleague of Smith's at Magdalen, makes reference to Smith (A.N. Wilson, C.S. Lewis : A Life, New York: W. W. Norton, 1990) as does Lewis' voluminous published correspondence. For personal glimpses : John Buchan, Memory Hold-the-Door, London : Hodder & Stoughton, 1940 : 49; L. E. Jones, An Edwardian Youth, London : Macmillan, 1956; D. Scott, A.D. Lindsay, Oxford : Basil Blackwell, 1971 : 41, 43, 45, 51, 52, 113; Sir Ernest Barker, Age and Youth, London : OUP, 1953 : 319; P.E. Matheson, The Life of Hastings Rashdall, London : OUP, 1928 : 127, 221; Sir Henry Jones & J.H. Muirhead, The Life and Philosophy of Edward Caird, Bristol : Thoemmes, 1991 : 156-7; J. Joliffe, Raymond Asquith : Life and Letters, London : Collins, 1980 : 90.
For philosophical assessments, see Adrian Coates, A Sceptical Examination of Contemporary British Philosophy, London : Brentano's, 1929 : 163-87; and James Patrick, The Magdalen Metaphysicals, USA : Mercer University Press, 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 [Physics] at Oxford, shortly after the First World War.
Smith was educated at Inverness Academy, at the collegiate school, Edinburgh, at Edinburgh University (where he was Ferguson classical scholar in 1884), and at Balliol College
Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College , founded in 1263, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England but founded by a family with strong Scottish connections....
, Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
, to which he was admitted as Warner exhibitioner and honorary scholar in Hilary term 1884. His most visible accomplishments was his work with William David Ross on a 12-volume commentary on Aristotle, and his Gifford Lectures
Gifford Lectures
The Gifford Lectures were established by the will of Adam Lord Gifford . They were established to "promote and diffuse the study of Natural Theology in the widest sense of the term — in other words, the knowledge of God." The term natural theology as used by Gifford means theology supported...
for 1929 - 1931 on the Heritage of Idealism, which were never published.
The 'Moral' tag in his Professorial title disappeared with R.G. Collingwood's appointment in 1936. Smith expressed some unease about the combination of 'moral' and 'metaphysical' in his inaugural lecture Knowing and Acting, Oxford : OUP, 1910 : 4-5): The framer of the Chair's regulations, he remarks, describes the Professor's duties 'in a way which rather sets a probem 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 though86t - 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 harmonizing the possibly divergent accounts given of Logic by the Wykeham Professor 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
Harold Macmillan
Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, OM, PC was Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 10 January 1957 to 18 October 1963....
(1894-1986) : '... he [Macmillan] recalled 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. (A. Horne, Macmillan, London : Macmillan, 1988, I : 27).
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 Wayneflete Professorship had come strongly under the sway of the Italian philosopher, Benedetto Croce
Benedetto Croce
Benedetto Croce was an Italian idealist philosopher, and occasionally also politician. He wrote on numerous topics, including philosophy, history, methodology of history writing and aesthetics, and was a prominent liberal, although he opposed laissez-faire free trade...
(1866-1952). The philosophy of Giovanni Gentile
Giovanni Gentile
Giovanni Gentile was an Italian neo-Hegelian Idealist philosopher, a peer of Benedetto Croce. He described himself as 'the philosopher of Fascism', and ghostwrote A Doctrine of Fascism for Benito Mussolini. He also devised his own system of philosophy, Actual Idealism.- Life and thought :Giovanni...
(1875-1944) later exerted a powerful influence.
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 J.D. Mabbott, Oxford Memories, Oxford : Thornton, 1986 : 74, 77. A.N. Wilson's biography of C.S. Lewis, a colleague of Smith's at Magdalen, makes reference to Smith (A.N. Wilson, C.S. Lewis : A Life, New York: W. W. Norton, 1990) as does Lewis' voluminous published correspondence. For personal glimpses : John Buchan, Memory Hold-the-Door, London : Hodder & Stoughton, 1940 : 49; L. E. Jones, An Edwardian Youth, London : Macmillan, 1956; D. Scott, A.D. Lindsay, Oxford : Basil Blackwell, 1971 : 41, 43, 45, 51, 52, 113; Sir Ernest Barker, Age and Youth, London : OUP, 1953 : 319; P.E. Matheson, The Life of Hastings Rashdall, London : OUP, 1928 : 127, 221; Sir Henry Jones & J.H. Muirhead, The Life and Philosophy of Edward Caird, Bristol : Thoemmes, 1991 : 156-7; J. Joliffe, Raymond Asquith : Life and Letters, London : Collins, 1980 : 90.
For philosophical assessments, see Adrian Coates, A Sceptical Examination of Contemporary British Philosophy, London : Brentano's, 1929 : 163-87; and James Patrick, The Magdalen Metaphysicals, USA : Mercer University Press, 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 [Physics] at Oxford, shortly after the First World War.
External links
- Biography of Smith by Dr Michael W. DeLashmutt for Templeton Press' site for the Gifford Lectures.