A Victorian Frame of Mind: The Thought of John Clark Murray

Abstract

<p>John Clark Murray (1836 - 1917) held the Chair of Mental and Moral Philosophy at Queen's College from 1862 to 1872, and at McGill University from 1872 until his retirement in 1903. The purpose of the present study is to offer a close historical examination of a thinker who has often been treated as a transitional thinker in histories of philosophical activity in nineteenth century Canada. The opening biographical chapter establishes the Scottish cultural tradition in which Murray was raised and whose social and educational values he continued to perpetuate in his own writing and teaching. The Scottish tradition clarifies the critical discussion in Chapter Two of some of the ambiguities of Murray's position with regard to the philosophical movements of the nineteenth century. In particular, the difficulties of classing Murray with either the Scottish Common Sense Realists, the Neo-Kantian or Neo-Hegelian Idealists, or the rising group of 'professional' philosophers are considered. Specific elements of the intellectual framework of John Clark Murray's thought are dealt with in Chapter Three. Such characteristic concerns as the structure of knowledge, the relation of materialism and idealism, freedom and necessity, and moral philosophy are considered in themselves and as components of the unified order of truth which Murray found best expressed in Christianity. The final chapter focuses on Murray's effort to formulate a response to the social problems emerging as a consequence of industrialism. After establishing the ideological strength of Murray's economic and political liberalism, this chapter traces the efforts of a concerned liberal to understand contemporary problems and of fer solutions to them.</p>