Robert Adamson

Robert Adamson (19 January 1852 – 5 February 1902) was a Scottish philosopher and Professor of Logic at the University of Glasgow.

Early life The philosopher Robert Adamson was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. His father Robert Adamson (died 1855) was a Scottish solicitor, active in Dunbar, Coldstream and, later, in Edinburgh. His mother Mary Agnes Buist (1809–1876) was the daughter of David Buist, factor to George Baillie-Hamilton, 10th Earl of Haddington (1802–1870). Robert Adamson and Mary Agnes Buist were married on 21 November 1843 at Tyninghame, East Lothian, Scotland. In 1855 Mrs. Adamson was left a widow with small means, and devoted herself entirely to the education of her six children (Helen, Ann, John, David, Robert, and Laurence). Of these, Robert was successful from the first. At the end of his school career he entered the University of Edinburgh at the age of fourteen, and four years later graduated with first-class honours in mental philosophy, with prizes in every department of the faculty of arts. He completed his university successes by winning the Tyndall-Bruce scholarship, the Hamilton fellowship (1872), the Ferguson scholarship (1872) and the Shaw fellowship (1873).

After a short residence at the University of Heidelberg (1871), where he began his study of German philosophy, he returned to Edinburgh as assistant first to Henry Calderwood and later to Alexander Campbell Fraser. He also joined the staff of the Encyclopædia Britannica (9th edition) (1874) and studied widely in the Advocates' Library. (1859-1935), a daughter of David Duncan (1826-1871) (a Manchester linen merchant), was a woman of kindred tastes, and their union was entirely happy. Their daughter, Sarah Gough Adamson was a highly regarded landscape artist.

Published writings It is matter for regret to the student that Adamson's active labours in the lecture room precluded him from systematic production. His writings consisted of short articles, of which many appeared in the Encyclopaedia and in Mind, a volume on Kant and another on Fichte. At the time of his death he was writing a History of Psychology, and had promised a work on Kant and the Modern Naturalists. Both in his life and in his writings he was remarkable for impartiality. It was his peculiar virtue that he could quote his opponents without warping their meaning. From this point of view he would have been perhaps the first historian of philosophy of his time, had his professional labours been less exacting.