Dugald Stewart

Dugald Stewart (1753-1828), Scottish philosopher, was born in Edinburgh on the 22nd of November 1753. His father, Matthew Stewart (1715-1785), was professor of mathematics in the University of Edinburgh (1747-1772). Dugald Stewart was educated in Edinburgh at the high school and the university, where he read mathematics and moral philosophy under Adam Ferguson. In 1771, he went to Glasgow, where he attended the classes of Thomas Reid. There, he boarded with Archibald Alison, author of the Essay on Taste, and a lasting friendship sprang up between them.

What we commonly call sensibility, depends, in a great measure, on the power of imagination. Point out two men, any object of compassion; --a man, for example, reduced by misfortune from easy circumstances to indigence. The one feels merely in proportion to what he perceives by his senses. The other follows, in imagination, the unfortunate man to his dwelling, and partakes with him and his family in their domestic distresses.... As he proceeds in the painting, his sensibility increases, and he weeps, not for what he sees, but for what he imagines. It will be said, that it was his sensibility which originally aroused his imagination; and the observation is undoubtedly true; but it is equally evident, on the other hand, that the warmth of his imagination increases and prolongs his sensibility. (From Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind (1792).

After a single session in Glasgow, Dugald Stewart, at the age of nineteen, was summoned by his father, whose health was beginning to fail, to conduct the mathematical classes in the University of Edinburgh. After three years as his father's substitute he was elected professor of mathematics in conjunction with him in 1775. Three years later Adam Ferguson was appointed secretary to the commissioners sent out to the American colonies, and Stewart lectured as his substitute. Thus in 1778-1779, in addition to his mathematical work, he delivered a course of lectures on morals.

In 1783 he married Helen Bannatyne, who died in 1787, leaving an only son, Colonel Matthew Stewart. In 1785 he succeeded Ferguson in the chair of moral philosophy, which he filled for a quarter of a century and made a centre of intellectual and moral influence. Students were attracted by his reputation from England, and even from the Continent and America. Among them were Sir Walter Scott, Jeffrey, Cockburn, Francis Horner, Sydney Smith, Lord Brougham, Dr Thomas Brown, James Mill, Sir James Mackintosh and Sir Archibald Alison. The course on moral philosophy embraced, besides ethics, lectures on political philosophy or the theory of government, and from 1800 onwards a separate course of lectures was delivered on political economy, then almost unknown as a science. Stewart's political teaching was sufficient, in the times of reaction after the French Revolution, to attract suspicion of disaffection to the constitution. The summers of 1788 and 1789 he spent in France, where he met Suard, Degerando, Raynal, and came to sympathize with the revolutionary movement.

In 1790 Stewart married again. Miss Cranstoun, who became his wife, was a lady of birth and accomplishments, and he was in the habit of submitting to her criticism whatever he wrote. They had a son and a daughter; the death of the former in 1809 was a severe blow to his father, and was the immediate cause of his retirement from the active duties of his chair. In the session of 1809-1810, his place was taken by Dr Thomas Brown, who in 1810 was appointed conjoint professor. When Brown died, in 1820, Stewart retired altogether from the professorship, which was conferred upon John Wilson, better known as "Christopher North." From 1809 onwards Stewart lived mainly at Kinneil House, Linlithgowshire, which was placed at his disposal by the duke of Hamilton. In 1822 he was struck with paralysis, but recovered enough to enable him to resume his studies. He died in Edinburgh on 11th June 1828. A monument to his memory was erected on Calton Hill.

Philoosophy

Stewart's philosophical views were very similar to those of Reid. He upheld Reid's psychological method and expounded the "common-sense" doctrine. However, he made concessions both to moderate empiricism and to the French ideologists (Laromiguiere, Cabanis and Destutt de Tracy). It is important to notice the energy of his declaration against the argument of ontology, and also against Condillac's sensationalism. Kant, he confessed, he could not understand. Perhaps his most original work is his theory of taste in the Philosophical Essays. But his reputation rests more on his eloquence and style than on original work.