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DUGALD STEWART (1753-1828)

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Originally appearing in Volume V25, Page 914 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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DUGALD See also:

STEWART (1753-1828)  , Scottish philosopher, was See also:born in See also:Edinburgh on the 22nd of See also:November 1753 . His See also:father, See also:Matthew See also:Stewart (171 1785), was See also:professor of See also:mathematics in the university of Edinburgh (1747–1772) . Dugald Stewart waseducated in Edinburgh at the high school and the university, where he read mathematics and moral See also:philosophy under See also:Adam See also:Ferguson . In 1771, in the See also:hope of gaining a See also:Snell See also:exhibition and proceeding to See also:Oxford to study for the See also:English See also:Church, he went to See also:Glasgow, where he attended the classes of See also:Thomas See also:Reid . While he owed to Reid all his theory of morality, he repaid the See also:debt by giving to Reid's views the See also:advantage of his admirable See also:style and See also:academic eloquence . In Glasgow Stewart boarded in the same See also:house with See also:Archibald See also:Alison, author of the See also:Essay on See also:Taste, and a lasting friendship sprang up between them . After a single session in Glasgow, Dugald Stewart, at the See also:age of nineteen, was summoned by his father, whose See also:health was beginning to fail, to conduct the mathematical classes in the university of Edinburgh . After acting three years as his father's substitute he was elected professor of mathematics in See also:conjunction with him in 1775 . Three years later Adam Ferguson was appointed secretary to the commissioners sent out to the See also:American colonies, and at his urgent See also:request Stewart lectured as his substitute . Thus during the session 1778–1779, in addition to his mathematical See also:work, he delivered an See also:original course of lectures on morals . In 1783 he married See also:Helen See also:Bannatyne, who died in 1787, leaving an only son, See also:Colonel Matthew Stewart . In 1785 he succeeded Ferguson in the See also:chair of moral philosophy, which he filled for a See also:quarter of a See also:century and made a centre of intellectual and moral See also:influence .

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Young men were attracted by his reputation from See also:England, and even from the See also:Continent and See also:America . Among his pupils were See also:Sir See also:Walter See also:Scott, See also:Jeffrey, See also:Cockburn, See also:Francis See also:Horner, See also:Sydney See also:Smith, See also:Lord See also:Brougham, Dr Thomas See also:Brown, See also:James See also:Mill, Sir James See also:Mackintosh and Sir Archibald Alison . The course on moral philosophy embraced, besides See also:ethics.proper, lectures on See also:political philosophy or the theory of See also:government, and from 1800 onwards a See also:separate course of lectures was delivered on political See also:economy, then almost unknown as a See also:science to the See also:general public . Stewart's enlightened political teaching was sufficient, in the times of reaction succeeding the See also:French Revolution, to draw upon him the undeserved suspicion of disaffection to the constitution . The summers of 1788 and 1789 he spent in See also:France, where he met Suard, Degerando, See also:Raynal, and learned to sympathize with the revolutionary See also:movement . In 1790 Stewart married a second See also:time . See also:Miss Cranstoun, who became his wife, was a See also:lady of See also:birth and accomplishments, and he was in the See also:habit of submitting to her See also:criticism whatever he wrote . A son and a daughter were the issue of this See also:marriage . The See also:death of the former in 1809 was a severe See also:blow to his father, and was the immediate cause of his retirement from the active duties of his chair . Before that, however, Stewart had not been idle as an author . As a student in Glasgow he wrote an essay on Dreaming . In 1792 he published the first See also:volume of the Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind; the second volume appeared in 1814, and the third not till 1827 .

In 1793 he printed a textbook, Outlines of Moral Philosophy, which went through many See also:

editions; and in the same See also:year he read before the Royal Society of Edinburgh his See also:account of the See also:Life and Writings of Adam Smith . Similar See also:memoirs of See also:Robertson the historian and of Reid were afterwards read before the same See also:body and appear in his published See also:works . In 18o5 Stewart published See also:pamphlets defending Mr (afterwards Sir See also:John) See also:Leslie against the charges of unorthodoxy made by the See also:presbytery of Edinburgh . In 1806 he received in lieu of a See also:pension the nominal See also:office of the writership of the Edinburgh See also:Gazette, with a See also:salary of £300 . When the See also:shock of his son's death incapacitated him from lecturing during the session of 1809–1810, his See also:place was taken, at his own request, by Dr Thomas Brown, who in 1810 was appointed conjoint professor . On the death of Brown in 1820 Stewart retired altogether from the professorship, which was conferred upon John See also:Wilson, better known as " See also:Christopher See also:North." From 1809 onwards Stewart lived mainly at Kinneil House, See also:Linlithgowshire, which was placed at his disposal by the See also:duke of See also:Hamilton . In 18ro appeared the Philosophical Essays, in 1814 the second volume of the Elements, in 1815 the first See also:part and in 1821 the second part of the " Dissertation " written for the See also:Encyclopaedia Britannica " Supplement," entitled " A General View of the Progress of Metaphysical, ' the See also:historical See also:interest of having preceded Sir John See also:Harington's See also:translation (1591) . The volume containing this version and other poems (of indifferent quality) is preserved in the See also:Advocates' Library, Edinburgh . It bears the See also:title Ane Abbregement of See also:Roland Fvriovs, translait ovt of Aroist: togither vith sym Rapsodies of the Avthor's yovthfvll braine, and last ane Schersing ovt of trew Felicitie; composit in See also:Scotia meiter be J . Stewart of Baldynneis . . This MS. appears to be the original which was once in the See also:possession of James VI . Extracts are printed in See also:Irving's See also:History of Scotish See also:Poetry (1861) .

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