George Elder Davie

George Elder Davie

George Davie with Dr. Vincent Hope in 1996
Born (1912-03-18)18 March 1912
Dundee, Scotland, UK
Died 20 March 2007(2007-03-20) (aged 95)
Sutton Veny, Wiltshire, UK
Pen name G.E. Davie
Occupation Writer, philosopher, academic
Nationality Scottish
Genre non-fiction, philosophy, James Frederick Ferrier
Spouse Elspeth Mary Dryer
Children one daughter

George Elder Davie (1912–2007) was a prominent Scottish philosopher whose well-received book, The Democratic Intellect (1961), concerns the treatment of philosophy in 19th century Scottish universities.

Life

He was born at no. 4 Baxter Park Terrace, Dundee on 18 March 1912. His father, George Myles Davie was a pharmacist and chemistry teacher, and his mother was Isabella Calder Elder. He married Elspeth Mary Dryer, an art teacher, on 5 October 1944 at Bonnyrigg Church in Midlothian. Elspeth Davie later became a respected writer and was awarded the Katherine Mansfield Prize in 1978.[1] They had one daughter with whom he resided at Sutton Veny, Wiltshire at the time of his death on 20 March 2007.[2]

Career

Honours

The Democratic Intellect

In this book, Davie deals with the struggle during the 19th century in Scotland to maintain a generalist form of education which is not only philosophical but also scientific, humanistic and democratic. The book has been described as "a thesis about liberal education – pursued by a micro-historical investigation of the culture and academic politics of Scotland's universities in the 19th century. More than 40 years on, the book's discussions of the restriction of academic independence by centralisation, inter-university competition for prestige, research versus teaching and even versus scholarship, notions of abandoning moral discourse for ill-examined claims regarding scientific advance, are still relevant."[6]
Davie's somewhat prolix style of writing is exemplified here:
“It is possible to confirm still further the importance which this ideal of a philosophical education had for the Scots if we turn from the achieved pattern of national pedagogy to the plans which were being mooted for its development. What these plans reveal – until well on in the nineteenth century – is the remarkable hold on the country of the belief in the possibility of general education through philosophy. Not that the Scots had any dislike of professional accomplishment; on the contrary, they admired it even to excess, and were eager for the introduction into their educational system of training centres for higher education and specialisation in the new subjects. But the distinctive mark of their thinking about these matters and of the organised projects it inspired was that they wanted to retain philosophy as a compulsory part of what we would now call secondary education (fifteen to nineteen), and that admission to the specialist schools – though it was to be granted early – nevertheless would require, as a preliminary, philosophical education in the old style.”[7]

Publications

Sources

References

  1. ↑ According to The Herald Obituary, 23 March 2007, but this does not appear to be the New Zealand Katherine Mansfield Prize.
  2. ↑ Births, marriages and deaths information available at the General Register Office for Scotland, Scotlands People Centre in Edinburgh, and also at http://scotlandspeople.gov.uk
  3. ↑ Obituary in The Independent, Thursday, 29 March 2007.
  4. ↑ The Credibility of Divine Existence: The collected papers of Norman Kemp Smith, edited by A. J. D. Porteus, R. D. Maclennan and G.E. Davie. London: Macmillan, 1967.
  5. ↑ Philosophers of the Scottish Enlightenment. Edited by Vincent Hope. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1984.
  6. ↑ Obituary in The Independent, Thursday, 29 March 2007.
  7. ↑ The Democratic Intellect, second edition, 1964, paperback edition, 1981, p.20.
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