Robert Adamson (19 January 1852 – 5 February 1902) was a Scottish philosopher and Professor of Logic at Glasgow.

Early life

The philosopher Robert Adamson was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. His father Robert Adamson (died 1855) was a Scottish solicitor, active in Dunbar, Coldstream and, later, in Edinburgh. His mother Mary Agnes Buist (1809 - 11 February 1876) was the daughter of David Buist, factor to George Baillie-Hamilton, 10th Earl of Haddington (1802-1870). Robert Adamson and Mary Agnes Buist were married on 21 November 1843 at Tyninghame, East Lothian, Scotland. In 1855 Mrs. Adamson was left a widow with small means, and devoted herself entirely to the education of her six children (Helen, Ann, John, David, Robert, and Laurence). Of these, Robert was successful from the first. At the end of his school career he entered the University of Edinburgh at the age of fourteen, and four years later graduated with first-class honours in mental philosophy, with prizes in every department of the faculty of Arts. He completed his university successes by winning the Tyndall-Bruce scholarship, the Hamilton fellowship (1872), the Ferguson scholarship (1872) and the Shaw fellowship (1873).

After a short residence at Heidelberg (1871), where he began his study of German philosophy, he returned to Edinburgh as assistant first to Henry Calderwood (1830-1897) and later to Alexander Campbell Fraser (1819-1914). He joined the staff of the Encyclopædia Britannica (9th edition) (1874) and studied widely in the Advocates' Library. (1859-1935), a daughter of David Duncan (1826-1871) (a Manchester linen merchant), was a woman of kindred tastes, and their union was entirely happy. Their daughter, Sarah Gough Adamson was a highly regarded landscape artist.

Published writings

It is matter for regret to the student that Adamson's active labours in the lecture room precluded him from systematic production. His writings consisted of short articles, of which many appeared in the Encyclopaedia and in Mind, a volume on Kant and another on Fichte. At the time of his death he was writing a History of Psychology, and had promised a work on Kant and the Modern Naturalists. Both in his life and in his writings he was remarkable for impartiality. It was his peculiar virtue that he could quote his opponents without warping their meaning. From this point of view he would have been perhaps the first historian of philosophy of his time, had his professional labours been less exacting.

Bibliography<br />

The following were published, either in his lifetime or posthumously.

  • Development of Greek Philosophy, The (1908)
  • Development of Modern Philosophy and Other Essays, The (1903)
  • Fichte (1881) <small>Blackwood's Philosophical Classics</small>
  • On the Philosophy of Kant (1879)

Contributions to the Encyclopædia Britannica Ninth Edition

  • Friedrich von Hermann

Contributions to the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition

  • Francis Bacon (with John Malcolm Mitchell)
  • Roger Bacon (with an anonymous co-author)
  • Friedrich Eduard Beneke
  • George Berkeley
  • Saint Bonaventura (with an anonymous co-author)
  • Giordano Bruno (with John Malcolm Mitchell)
  • Joseph Butler (in part)
  • Category (in part)
  • Johannes Scotus Erigena (with John Malcolm Mitchell)
  • Johann Gottlieb Fichte (with an anonymous co-author)
  • Fourier, François Charles Marie
  • Pierre Gassendi (with an anonymous co-author)
  • David Hume (with John Malcolm Mitchell)
  • Immanuel Kant (with an anonymous co-author)

Contributions to the Dictionary of National Biography

  • Adelard of Bath
  • Alcuin
  • Alexander of Hales
  • Alfred Anglicus
  • Bacon, Roger
  • Eyton, Thomas Campbell

References

;Attribution

  • Robert Adamson papers at the University of Manchester Library