Dugald Stewart | |
|---|---|
 Dugald Stewart as painted byHenry Raeburn, c. 1810. | |
| Born | (1753-11-22)22 November 1753 Edinburgh, Scotland |
| Died | 11 June 1828(1828-06-11) (aged 74) Edinburgh, Scotland |
| Nationality | Scottish |
| Alma mater | University of Edinburgh |
| Movement | Scottish Enlightenment |
| Era | 18th-century philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | Scottish Common Sense Realism |
Main interests | Moral philosophy |
Dugald Stewart (/ˈdjuːɡəld/; 22 November 1753 – 11 June 1828) was a Scottish philosopher and mathematician. Today regarded as one of the most important figures of the laterScottish Enlightenment, he was renowned as a populariser of the work ofFrancis Hutcheson and ofAdam Smith. Trained in mathematics, medicine and philosophy,[1] his lectures at theUniversity of Edinburgh were widely disseminated by his many influential students. In 1783 he was a joint founder of theRoyal Society of Edinburgh. In most contemporary documents he is referred to as ProfDougal Stewart.[2]
He was the son ofMatthew Stewart (1715–1785), professor of mathematics at theUniversity of Edinburgh (1747–1772), and was born in his father's quarters atOld College. His mother was Marjory Stewart, his father's cousin.[citation needed]
He was educated at theHigh School and theUniversity of Edinburgh, where he studied mathematics andmoral philosophy underAdam Ferguson. In 1771, in the hope of gaining aSnell Exhibition Scholarship and proceeding toOxford to study for the English Church, he went to theUniversity of Glasgow to attend the classes ofThomas Reid. To Reid he later owed his theory ofmorality. InGlasgow, Stewart boarded in the same house asArchibald Alison, author of theEssay on Taste, and a lasting friendship sprang up between them.[3]
After a single session inGlasgow University, at the age of nineteen, Dugald was asked by his father, whose health was beginning to fail, to give his mathematical classes in the University of Edinburgh. After three years there, in 1775, Dugald was elected joint professor of mathematics in conjunction with his father. Three years later Ferguson was appointed secretary to the commissioners sent out to theAmerican colonies, and at his request Stewart lectured as his substitute during the session 1778–1779, delivering an original course of lectures on morals.[3] In his early years he was influenced byLord Monboddo, with whom he corresponded.
In 1785 Stewart succeeded Ferguson in the chair ofmoral philosophy, which he filled for twenty-five years, making it a centre of intellectual and moral influence. Young men were attracted by his reputation from England, Europe and America. Greatly influenced by the IrishPresbyterianFrancis Hutcheson who, in the preceding generation, had held the chair of moral philosophy at theUniversity of Glasgow, Stewart's course on moral philosophy embraced, besides ethics proper, lectures onpolitical philosophy or the theory of government.[3]
William Drennan, whose fatherThomas Drennan had been secretary to Hutcheson, and who 1791 moved the formation of theSociety of United Irishmen inBelfast and inDublin, was a student and friend.[4] It is from Stewart that Drennan is said to have "imbibed the classical tradition of republican theory, in its most famous English embodiment in the works ofJohn Locke, and its contemporary reincarnation in the works ofRichard Price andJoseph Priestley".[5]
Stewart's dissident rationalism greatly influencedMaria Edgeworth andElizabeth Hamilton. They drew extensively on his work in constructing educational programmes that rested on the assumption that women, and especially mothers, were intellectually capable of understanding the importance of the early association of ideas in the training of children's emotions and reasoning powers.[6]
Stewart spent the summers of 1788 and 1789 in France, where he metSuard,Degérando, andRaynal, and came to sympathise with the revolutionary movement.[3] His political teaching, after theFrench Revolution, drew suspicion on him. His Edinburgh residence for several years wasWhitefoord House on theRoyal Mile.[7]
From 1800 to 1801, Stewart gave lectures to undergraduate students on the subject ofpolitical economy, the first person to do so.[8] Stewart made himself the leading disciple ofAdam Smith and, after Smith's death became his first biographer. In 1793 Stewart had read hisAccount of the Life and Writings of Adam Smith to theRoyal Society of Edinburgh.
In 1797 he appears as "Dougald Stewart, professor of moral philosophy" living at Lothian House (aka Lothian Hutt) near the bottom of theCanongate.[9] Lothian Hutt was built in 1750 by William, Marquess of Lothian, who appears to have been a friend od Stewart. Stewart was still staying here in 1813.[10]
In 1783 Stewart married Helen Bannatyne (a distant cousin),[11] who died in 1787, leaving him an only son,Matthew StewartFRSE (1784-1851). In 1790 he marriedHelen D'Arcy Cranstoun, sister ofGeorge Cranstoun. His second wife was well-born and accomplished, and he was in the habit of submitting to her criticism whatever he wrote. They had a son and a daughter. The son's death in 1809 brought about his retirement from the active duties of his chair.[3]
His sister, Janet Stewart, married Rev Thomas Miller ofCumnock, and they were parents to Dr Patrick MillerFRSE (1782-1871).[12]
In 1806 Stewart received in lieu of a pension the nominal office of the writership of theEdinburgh Gazette, with a salary of £300. When he ceased lecturing during the session of 1809–1810, his place was taken, at his own request, byThomas Brown, who in 1810 was appointed conjoint professor. On the death of Brown in 1820 Stewart retired altogether from the professorship. His successor wasJohn Wilson, known as "Christopher North".[3]
From 1809 onwards Stewart lived mainly atKinneil House, Bo'ness, which was placed at his disposal by theDuke of Hamilton.[3] He was elected to theAmerican Philosophical Society in 1791.[13] In June 1814 Stewart was elected aFellow of the Royal Society.[14] He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1817.[15]
Like his father, Rev Dr Matthew Stewart, he was a Scottish Freemason. He was Initiated in the Lodge of his father - Lodge Canongate Kilwinning, No.2, on 4 December 1775.[16]
His friend and fellow Freemason, Robert Burns, made him an honorary member of Lodge St David, Tarbolton, No. 133, on 25 July 1787. This was whilst Stewart was staying at the family seat atCatrine,Ayrshire.[17]
In 1822 he was struck withparalysis, but recovered a fair degree of health, sufficient to enable him to resume his studies. He died in Edinburgh on 11 June 1828, where he was buried inCanongate Churchyard, close to his Edinburgh residence. He is buried in an enclosed vault in the lower section, on its west side.
In 1831, and of great public note, amonument was erected by the city onCalton Hill.[3] This is to a design byWilliam Henry Playfair and holds a commanding position in the city skyline, forming one of the city's iconic landmarks.[18]
His memory is also honoured by the "Dugald Stewart Building" (erected 2011) for theUniversity of Edinburgh to house its Philosophy Department, on Charles Street, offGeorge Square.
Stewart as a student in Glasgow wrote an essay onDreaming. In 1792 he published the first volume of theElements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind; the second volume appeared in 1814, the third not till 1827. In 1793 he printed a textbook,Outlines of Moral Philosophy, which went through many editions; and in the same year he read before the Royal Society of Edinburgh hisAccount of the Life and Writings ofAdam Smith. Similar memoirs ofWilliam Robertson the historian and of Reid were afterwards read before the same body and appear in his published works.[3]
In 1805 Stewart published pamphlets defendingJohn Leslie against the charges of unorthodoxy made by the presbytery of Edinburgh. In 1810 appeared thePhilosophical Essays,[19] in 1814 the second volume of theElements, in 1815 the first part and in 1821 the second part of the "Dissertation" written for theEncyclopædia Britannica Supplement, entitled "A General View of the Progress of Metaphysical, Ethical, and Political Philosophy since the Revival of Letters." In 1827 he published the third volume of theElements, and in 1828, a few weeks before his death,The Philosophy of the Active and Moral Powers.[3]
Stewart's works were edited in 11 vols. (1854–1858) bySir William Hamilton and completed with a memoir byJohn Veitch.[3]
Among Stewart's pupils wereLord Palmerston,Sir Walter Scott,Francis Jeffrey,Henry Thomas Cockburn,Francis Horner,Sydney Smith,John William Ward,Lord Brougham,Dr. Thomas Brown,James Mill,Sir James Mackintosh andSir Archibald Alison.[3]
His reputation rested as much on his eloquence, populism, and style as on original work.[20] He was principally responsible for making the "Scottish philosophy" predominant in early 19th-century Europe.[20] In the second half of the century, Stewart's reputation fell to that of a follower of the work of Thomas Reid.[3]
Stewart upheld Reid's psychological method and expounded theScottish Common Sense Realism,[21] which was attacked byJames Mill andJohn Stuart Mill. Part of his originality lay in his incorporation of elements of moderateempiricism and the French ideologistsLaromiguière,Cabanis andDestutt de Tracy. He opposed the argument ofontology, andCondillac'ssensationalism.Immanuel Kant, he said, he could not understand.[22]
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Stewart, Dugald".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 25 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 913–914.
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