{{Short description|British philosopher (1869–1945)}} {{redirect|A. E. Taylor|the American food researcher and educator|Alonzo E. Taylor}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2014}} {{Use British English|date=February 2015}} {{Infobox philosopher | name = Alfred Edward Taylor | image = Photographic Portrait of Alfred E. Taylor.jpg | birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1869|12|22}} | birth_place = [[Oundle]], England | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1945|10|31|1869|12|22}}{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=xkBAAAAAIBAJ&pg=5659%2C3354363 |title=Obituary. Professor A.E. Taylor. Eminent Platonist |work=The Glasgow Herald |date=2 November 1945 |page=6 |access-date=15 November 2017}} | death_place = [[Edinburgh]], Scotland | education = [[New College, Oxford]] | era = [[20th-century philosophy]] | region = [[Western philosophy]] | school_tradition = [[British idealism]]
[[Neo-Hegelianism]] | main_interests = [[Metaphysics]]
[[Philosophy of religion]]
[[Moral philosophy]]
Scholarship of [[Plato]]
Scholarship of [[Hobbes]] | notable_ideas = The Taylor thesis (non-[[egoistic]] interpretation of Hobbesian ethics) | institutions = New College, Oxford
[[Merton College, Oxford]]
[[McGill University, Montreal]]
[[University of St. Andrews]]
[[University of Edinburgh]] | notable_students = {{ubl | [[John McIntyre (theologian)|John McIntyre]] | [[Thomas F. Torrance]] }} }} '''Alfred Edward Taylor''' (22 December 1869 – 31 October 1945) was a [[British idealist]] philosopher most famous for his contributions to the philosophy of [[idealism]] in his writings on [[metaphysics]], the [[philosophy of religion]], [[moral philosophy]], and the scholarship of [[Plato]].{{cite web |url=http://www.giffordlectures.org/Author.asp?AuthorID=164 |title=Biography – Alfred Taylor |publisher=Gifford Lecture Series |first=Kelly Van |last=Andel |access-date=12 April 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080420091852/http://www.giffordlectures.org/Author.asp?AuthorID=164 |archive-date=20 April 2008 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all }} He was a fellow of the [[British Academy]] (1911) and president of the [[Aristotelian Society]] from 1928 to 1929. At [[University of Oxford|Oxford]] he was made an honorary fellow of [[New College, Oxford|New College]] in 1931. In an age of universal upheaval and strife, he was a notable defender of idealism in the [[Anglophone]] world.Taylor was of the generation which followed after such influential idealists as [[Arthur Balfour|Balfour]], [[F. H. Bradley|Bradley]], and [[Bernard Bosanquet (philosopher)|Bosanquet]]. (The first generations which succeeded that of Taylor, those born in the 1870s and 1880s, are notable for strong, reactionary anti-metaphysical tendencies, especially [[Bertrand Russell]], [[George Edward Moore]], [[Charles Dunbar Broad]], and, although not an Englishman, [[Ludwig Wittgenstein]].) See: ''[[iarchive:hundredyearsofph0000pass p3u7|A Hundred Years of Philosophy]]'', by [[John Passmore]], London, 1957, Gerald Duckworth & Company, pp. 59, 60, 61, 64, 82, 113, 318. ==Career== Taylor was both a philosopher in his own right, addressing all the central problems of philosophy, and a philosophical scholar. Educated at Oxford in the closing days of the great European idealist movement, Taylor was early influenced by the school of [[British idealism]], especially [[neo-Hegelianism]]."Taylor, Alfred Edward," ''[[iarchive:encyclopediaofph08edwa|The Encyclopedia of Philosophy]],'' vols. 7–8, New York, 1967, Macmillan, 82–83. At [[New College, Oxford|New College]], he obtained a First in [[Literae Humaniores]] or 'Greats' in 1891 and held a prize fellowship at [[Merton College, Oxford]] (1891–96); he was re-elected as a Fellow in 1902.{{cite book|editor1-last=Levens|editor1-first=R.G.C.|title=Merton College Register 1900–1964|date=1964|publisher=Basil Blackwell|location=Oxford|page=27}} He served as a lecturer at [[Owens College, Manchester]] (1898–1903) and then as professor of logic and metaphysics at [[McGill University|McGill University, Montreal]] (1903–1908).{{Cite book |last= |url=http://archive.org/details/dictionaryofnati0000unse_s1x3 |title=Concise Dictionary of National Biography |date=1950 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-865303-5 |pages=427 |language=English |via=[[Internet Archive]]}} His first major book, ''Elements of Metaphysics'' (1903), dedicated (in heartfelt acknowledgment) to [[F. H. Bradley]], is a systematic treatise of metaphysics covering such topics as [[ontology]], [[cosmology]], and rational [[psychology]], and influenced by scholars including [[Josiah Royce]], [[James Ward (psychologist)|James Ward]], [[George Frederick Stout]], [[Richard Avenarius]], and [[Hugo Munsterberg]], as well as [[Robert Adamson (philosopher)|Robert Adamson]], [[Wilhelm Ostwald]], [[Bertrand Russell]], and even [[Louis Couturat]]."Preface," ''Elements of Metaphysics,'' London, 1961, Methuen, ix–x.Taylor made notable use of the following argument: "Change by itself, apart from a background of identity, is impossible for the reason that where there is no underlying identity there is nothing to change. All change must be change of and in some thing. A mere succession of entirely disconnected contents held together by no common permanent nature persisting in spite of the transition, would not be change at all. If I simply have before me first A and then B, A and B being absolutely devoid of any point of community, there is no sense in saying that I have apprehended a process of change." ''Elements of Metaphysics'', London, 1961, Methuen, 161. In later years, most notably in ''The Faith of a Moralist,'' Taylor began to move away from certain doctrines of his early idealistic youth, towards a more mature and comprehensive idealist philosophy. While students at Oxford and [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge]] were in thrall of anti-idealism, Taylor for many years influenced generations of young people at the [[University of St. Andrews]] (1908–1924) and the [[University of Edinburgh]] (1924–1941), two of the most ancient and prestigious universities of the United Kingdom, where he was Professor of Moral Philosophy. (Although he retired from his position at Edinburgh in 1941, he continued to teach and fulfil the other duties of the chair during the war until a successor was appointed in 1944.){{Cite book |last=Mander |first=W. J. |title=The Dictionary of Twentieth-Century British Philosophers |publisher=THOEMMES |year=2005 |isbn=1-84371-096-X |editor-last=Brown |editor-first=Stuart |pages=1024, 1026 |chapter=Taylor, Alfred Edward (1869–1945)}}{{Cite web |date=2019-01-15 |title=Chairs of Moral Philosophy and Logic & Metaphysics |url=https://www.ed.ac.uk/ppls/philosophy/about/history/chairs-of-moral-philosophy-and-logic-metaphysics |access-date=2024-02-05 |website=The University of Edinburgh |language=en}} As a philosophical scholar he is considered, alongside [[Francis Macdonald Cornford]], one of the greatest English [[Platonism|Platonists]] of his time. In the first half of the 20th century, Taylor remained, in a reactionary age of anti-metaphysics and growing political [[irrationalism]], a lonely but stalwart defender of 19th-century European philosophical idealism in the English-speaking world.According to [[John Macquarrie]], Taylor "remained firmly attached to a theistic and spiritualist interpretation of reality." [https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/taylor-alfred-edward-1869-1945 "Taylor, Alfred Edward (1869–1945)]", ''The Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', vols. 7–8, New York, 1967, Macmillan, 82–83. But his scholarship was not confined to [[Greek philosophy]]. In 1938 Taylor published a landmark article, "The Ethical Doctrine of Hobbes."{{Cite journal |last=Taylor |first=A. E. |date=1938 |title=The Ethical Doctrine of Hobbes |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3746387 |journal=[[Philosophy (journal)|Philosophy]] |volume=13 |issue=52 |pages=406–424 |doi=10.1017/S0031819100014194 |jstor=3746387 |s2cid=154655303 |issn=0031-8191 |url-access=registration }} This paper, as Stuart Brown notes, "advanced the bold thesis that [[Thomas Hobbes|Hobbes’s]] ethical theory is logically independent of the [[egoistic]] psychology and is a strict [[deontology]]."{{Cite journal |last=Brown |first=Stuart M. |date=1959 |title=Hobbes: The Taylor Thesis |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2182565 |journal=The Philosophical Review |volume=68 |issue=3 |pages=303–323 |doi=10.2307/2182565 |jstor=2182565 |issn=0031-8108 |url-access=subscription}} Both Taylor (1938) and Brown (1959) were reprinted in ''Hobbes Studies'' (1965).{{Cite book |url=http://archive.org/details/hobbesstudies0000unse_u6k7 |title=Hobbes Studies |date=1965 |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |others=Internet Archive |editor-last=Brown |editor-first=K. C. |location=Cambridge, Mass |url-access=registration |via=[[Internet Archive]]}} The deontological angle was developed, though with divergencies from Taylor's argument, by Howard Warrender in ''The Political Philosophy of Hobbes'' (1957).{{Cite book |last=Warrender |first=Howard |url=http://archive.org/details/politicalphiloso0000warr_a1u3 |title=The political philosophy of Hobbes, his theory of obligation |date=1957 |publisher=Oxford, Clarendon Press |url-access=registration |via=[[Internet Archive]]}} ==Major contributions== As a scholar of [[Plato]], he is perhaps most famous for, from his ''Varia Socratica'' (1911) onwards, presenting evidence in support of the position that the vast majority of the statements of [[Socrates]] in the [[Platonic dialogues]] accurately depict ideas of the historical man himself.cf."'Socrates' in Plato is neither, as some of the older and more uncritical expositors used to assume, the historical Socrates, nor, as is too often taken for granted to-day, the historical Plato, but the hero of the Platonic drama. The hero's character is largely modelled on that of the actual Socrates, his opinions are often those of the historical Plato, but he is still distinct from them both." Taylor, A. E. ''[[iarchive:plato00tayl/page/32/mode/1up|Plato]]'', London, 1908, [[Archibald Constable and Co|Archibald Constable & Co]], p. 32. His magnum opus, ''Plato: The Man and His Work'' (1926){{Cite book |last=Taylor |first=A. E. |url=http://archive.org/details/platothemanandhi032950mbp |title=Plato The Man And His Work |date=1955 |publisher=Methuen And Company Limited. }} and his ''Commentary on Plato's [[Timaeus (dialogue)|Timaeus]]'' (1927) are particularly important contributions to the higher learning of his time. In the latter work, according to [[W. D. Ross]], Taylor held that "Plato puts into [[Timaeus of Locri|Timaeus’]] mouth only views which Timaeus held or at least could have held."[[W. D. Ross]], [[iarchive:dli.ernet.16178/page/415/mode/1up|"Alfred Edward Taylor, 1869–1945,"]] in [[iarchive:dli.ernet.16178|''Proceedings of the British Academy'' 31]] (1945): 415 In moral philosophy he explored such issues as free will and the relationship between rightness and goodness. Taylor was greatly influenced by the thought of classical antiquity, by such philosophers as Plato and [[Aristotle]], as well as medieval scholasticism."Taylor, Alfred Edward," ''[[iarchive:dictionaryofphil0000unse|Dictionary of Philosophy]],'' revised and enlarged, edited by [[Dagobert D. Runes]], New York, 1983, [[The Philosophical Library]] Inc., 330. His contribution to the philosophy of religion is mainly his 1926–28 [[Gifford Lectures]], printed as ''The Faith of a Moralist'' (1930). Taylor made many contributions to the philosophical journal, ''[[Mind (journal)|Mind]]''.{{Cite journal |last=Porteous |first=A. J. D. |date=1946 |title=A. E. Taylor (1869-1945) |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2250551 |journal=Mind |volume=55 |issue=218 |pages=187–191 |doi=10.1093/mind/LV.219.187 |jstor=2250551 |issn=0026-4423 |url-access=subscription |quote=for almost half a century he contributed articles and reviews to this journal ... This notice would be incomplete without mention of his reviews which were at one time so constant a feature of MIND and, for some readers, were among its most interesting items }} He wrote some of the major articles in [[James Hastings]]' ''[[Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics]]''.{{Cite ODNB |last=MacKinnon |first=Donald M. |title=Taylor, Alfred Edward (1869–1945), philosopher |date=2004-09-23 |editor-last=Schofield |editor-first=Mark J. |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-36426 |access-date=2024-02-07 |language=en |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/36426 |isbn=978-0-19-861412-8 |quote=''Theism'', contributed to Hastings's ''Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics'' ... is one of the most valuable introductions to theistic metaphysics in the English language, and is a noteworthy combination of scholarly and analytical acumen. |author-link=Donald M. MacKinnon |url-access=subscription}} ==Selected works== * {{cite book |title=The Problem of Conduct: A Study in the Phenomenology of Ethics |year=1901 |publisher=[[Macmillan Publishers|Macmillan]] |location=London |oclc=2166791 |url=https://archive.org/details/theproblemofcond00tayluoft}} * {{cite book |title=Aristotle on his predecessors; being the first book of his Metaphysics |year=1907 |publisher=[[Open Court Publishing Company|Open Court]] |location=Chicago |oclc=269871 |url=https://archive.org/details/aristotlemetaphy00arisuoft}} * {{cite book |title=Thomas Hobbes |year=1908 |publisher=[[Constable & Robinson|Constable]] |location=London |oclc=50458 |url=https://archive.org/details/thomashobbes00tayluoft}} * {{cite book |title=Plato |year=1908 |publisher=[[Constable & Robinson|Constable]] |location=London |oclc=157751 |url=https://archive.org/details/taylorsplato00tayluoft}} * {{cite book |title= Elements of Metaphysics |orig-date=1909|year=1924 |publisher=[[Methuen Publishing|Methuen]] |location=London |oclc=5902259 |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924029027146}} * {{cite book |title=Epicurus |year=1911 |publisher=[[Constable & Robinson|Constable]] |location=London |oclc=3054279 |url=https://archive.org/details/aristotle00tayluoft}} * {{cite book |title=Varia Socratica: first series |year=1911 |publisher=Parker |location=[[Oxford]] |oclc=3511698 |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924008300612}} * {{cite book |title= Plato's Biography of Socrates |year=1917 |publisher=[[British Academy]] |location=London |oclc=1436017 |url=https://archive.org/details/platosbiographyo00tayluoft}} * {{cite book |title=Aristotle |orig-date=1919|year=1943 |publisher=T C & E C Jack |location=London |oclc=259497 |url=https://archive.org/details/aristotle00tayluoft}} * {{cite book |title=Platonism and Its Influence |year=1924 |publisher=[[Harrap]] |location=London |oclc=405563 |url=https://archive.org/details/platonismitsinfl00tayl}} * {{cite book |title=Plato: the Man and his Work |orig-date=1926|year=1949 |publisher=[[Methuen Publishing|Methuen]] |location=London |oclc=18981018 |url=https://archive.org/details/platothemanandhi032950mbp}} * {{cite book |title= David Hume and the Miraculous: the Leslie Stephen Lecture for 1927 |year=1927 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |location=[[Cambridge]] |oclc=3663134}} reprinted in ''[[iarchive:in.ernet.dli.2015.222686/page/n340/mode/1up|Philosophical Studies]]'' (1934) * {{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/alfred-edward-taylor-a-commentary-on-platos-timaeus-clarendon-press-1928 |title=A Commentary on Plato's Timaeus |year=1928 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press|Clarendon Press]] |location=[[Oxford]] |oclc=422028}} * {{cite book |title=The Faith of a Moralist |year=1930 |publisher=[[Macmillan Publishers|Macmillan]] |location=London |oclc=302893 |url=https://archive.org/details/faithofamoralist029389mbp |access-date= |archive-url= |archive-date= |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all}} * {{cite book |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b4462288&seq=5 |title=Plato and the Authorship of the Epinomis |year=1930 |publisher=[[British Academy]] |location=London |oclc=1957814}} * {{cite book |title=Socrates: The Man and His Thought |year=1933 |publisher=[[Peter Llewelyn Davies|Peter Davies Limited]] |location= |oclc=4146771 |url=https://archive.org/details/socrates1951tayl}} * {{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.222686 |title=Philosophical Studies |year=1934 |publisher=[[Macmillan Publishers|Macmillan]] |location=London |oclc=448206}} * {{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/christianhopeofi0000aeta |title=The Christian Hope of Immortality |year=1938 |publisher=[[Macmillan Publishers|Macmillan]] |location=London |oclc=385561 |url-access=registration}} * {{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/doesgodexist0000unse |title=Does God exist? |year=1945 |publisher=[[Macmillan Publishers|Macmillan]] |location=London |oclc=1840193}} ==References== {{reflist}} ==External links== {{Portal|Biography}} * [[W. D. Ross]], [[iarchive:dli.ernet.16178/page/n455/mode/1up|"Alfred Edward Taylor, 1869-1945"]] ''Proceedings Of The British Academy'' (1945) * {{Librivox author |id=14957}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Alfred Edward}} [[Category:1869 births]] [[Category:1945 deaths]] [[Category:Alumni of New College, Oxford]] [[Category:Presidents of the Aristotelian Society]] [[Category:Idealists]] [[Category:Fellows of the British Academy]] [[Category:Fellows of New College, Oxford]] [[Category:Academics of the University of St Andrews]] [[Category:Academics of the University of Edinburgh]] [[Category:British philosophy academics]] [[Category:Fellows of Merton College, Oxford]] [[Category:Commentators on Plato]]