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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: BAI-BAR |
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BAIN, ALEXANDER (1818-1903) , Scottish philosopher and educationalist, was born on the 11th of June 1818 in Aberdeen, where he received his first schooling. In early life he was a weaver, hence the punning description of him as Wee-vie, rex philosophorum. In 1836 he entered Marischal College, and came under the influence of John Cruickshank, professor of mathematics, Thomas Clark, professor of chemistry, and William Knight, professor of natural philosophy. His college career was distinguished, especially in mental philosophy, mathematics and physics. Towards the end of his arts course he became a contributor to the Westminster Review (first article " Electrotype and Daguerreotype," September 1840). This was the beginning of his connexion with John Stuart Mill, which led to a life-long friendship. In 1841 he became substitute for Dr Glennie, the professor of moral philosophy, who, through ill-health, was unable to discharge the active duties of the chair. This post he occupied for three successive sessions, during which he continued writing for the Westminster, and also in 1842 helped Mill with the revision of the MS. of his System of Logic. In 1843 he contributed the first review of the book to the London and Westminster. In 1845 he was appointed professor of mathematics and natural philosophy in the Andersonian University of Glasgow. A year later, "preferring a wider field, he resigned the position and devoted himself to literary work. In 1848 he removed to London to fill a post in the board of health, under Edwin Chadwick, and became a prominent member of the brilliant circle which included George Grote and John Stuart Mill. In 1855 he published his first large work, The Senses and the Intellect, followed in 1859 by The Emotions and the Will. These treatises won for him a position among independent thinkers. He was examiner in logical and moral philosophy (1857-1862 and 1864-1869) to the university of London, and in moral science in the Indian Civil Service examinations. In 186o he was appointed by the crown to the new chair of logic and English in the university of Aberdeen (created on the amalgamation of the two colleges, King's and Marischal, by the Scottish -Universities Commission of 1858). Up to this date neither logic nor English had received adequate attention in Aberdeen, and Bain devoted himself to supplying these deficiencies. He succeeded not only in raising the standard of education generally in the north of Scotland, but also in forming a school of philosophy and in widely influencing the teaching of English grammar and composition. His efforts were first directed to the preparation of English textbooks: Higher English Grammar (1863), followed in 1866 by the Manual
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All these works, from the Higher English Grammar down-wards, were written by Bain during his twenty years' professoriate at Aberdeen. To the same period belongs his institution of the philosophical journal Mind; the first number appeared in January 1876, under the editorship of a former pupil, G. Croom Robertson, of University College, London. To this journal Bain contributed many important articles and discussions; and in fact he bore the whole expenses of it till Robertson, owing to ill-health, resigned the editorship in 1891, when it passed into other hands. Bain resigned his professorship in 188o and was succeeded by William Minto, one of his most brilliant pupils. Nevertheless his interest
scheme of work mapped out in earlier years, remained as keen as ever. Accordingly, in 1882 appeared the Biography of James Mill, and accompanying it John Stuart Mill: a Criticism, with Personal Recollections. Next came (1884) a collection of articles and papers, most of which had appeared in magazines, under the title of Practical Essays. This was succeeded (1887, 1888) by a new edition of the Rhetoric, and along with it, a book On Teaching English, being an exhaustive application of the principles of rhetoric to the criticism of style, for the use of teachers; and in 1894 he published a revised edition of The Senses and the Intellect, which contain, his last word on psychology. In 1894 also appeared his last contribution to Mind. His last years were spent in privacy at Aberdeen, where he died on the 18th of September 1903. He married twice but left no children.Bain's life was mainly that of a thinker and a man of letters. But he also took a keen interest
rector of the university, each term of office extending over three years. He was a strenuous advocate of reform, especially in the teaching of sciences, and supported the claims of modern }languages to a place in the curriculum. A marble bust of him stands in the public library and his portrait hangs in the Marischal College.Wide as Bain's influence has been as a logician, a grammarianand a writer on rhetoric, his reputation rests on his psychology. At one with Johannes Miller in the conviction psychologus memo nisi physiologus, he was the first in Great Britain during the Igth century to apply physiology in a thoroughgoing fashion to the elucidation of mental states. He was ` the originator of the theory of psycho-physical parallelism, which is used so widely as a working basis by modern psychologists. His idea of applying the natural histbry method of classification to psychical phenomena gave scientific character to his work, the value of which was enhanced by his methodical exposition and his command of illustration
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oWorks (beside the above) :Edition with notes of Paley's Moral Philosophy (1852) ; Education as a Science (1899) ; Dissertations on leading philosophical topics (1903, mainly reprints of papers in Mind) ; he collaborated with J. S. Mill and Grote in editing James Mill's Analysis f the Phenomena of the Human Mind (1869), and assisted in editing rote's Aristotle and Minor Works; he also wrote a memoir pre-fixed to G. Croom Robertson's Philosophical Remains (1894). (See End of Article: BAIN, ALEXANDER (1818-1903) If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
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