James Adam

James Adam (7 April 1860 – 30 August 1907) was a Scottish classicist who taught classics at Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

Life James Adam was born on 7 April 1860 in Kinmuck in the parish of Keithhall near Inverurie, Aberdeenshire. The younger James was educated at the Old Grammar School in Old Aberdeen, at the University of Aberdeen where he studied under William Geddes and gained his B.A. as Senior Classic in 1880. He subsequently moved to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge in the same year, receiving his Cambridge B.A. in 1884.

In 1884 Adam was appointed Junior Fellow and soon thereafter Senior Lecturer in the Classics at Emmanuel College. He began lecturing on Greek poetry and philosophy in December 1884. He later became Senior Tutor at the college; he moved into the Senior Tutor's house in 1900. and another son, Neil Kensington Adam,

He was "a resolute opponent of all attempts to make Greek an optional study".

In 1904 and 1905 Adam delivered the Gifford Lectures at Aberdeen, choosing for his subject "The Religious Teachers of Greece".

He died in Aberdeen on 30 August 1907.

Editions and commentaries on Plato Platonis Apologia Socratis. Cambridge University Press, 1887. New edition, 1891. Platonis Crito. Cambridge University Press, 1888. 2nd edition, 1893. Platonis Euthyphro. Cambridge University Press, 1890. Platonis Protagoras. Cambridge University Press, 1893 with Adela Marion Adam. The Republic of Plato. Cambridge University Press, 1897. 2nd edition edited by D. A. Rees, 1965.

Other writings The Nuptial Number of Plato: its Solution and Significance. 1891. The Intellectual and Ethical Value of Classical Education. Cambridge, 1895. The Religious Teachers of Greece: Being Gifford Lectures on Natural Religion Delivered at Aberdeen. Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1908. Edited, with a memoir, by Adela Marion Adam from the Gifford Lectures delivered in 1904–06. The Vitality of Platonism, and Other Essays. Edited and published by A.M. Adam in 1911.