William Wallace

William Wallace (11 May 184418 February 1897) was a Scottish philosopher and academic who became fellow of Merton College and White's Professor of Moral Philosophy at Oxford University. He was best known for his studies of German philosophers, most notably Hegel, some of whose works he translated into highly regarded English editions. While reputedly forbidding in manner, he was known as an able and effective teacher and writer who succeeded in greatly improving the understanding of German philosophy in the English-speaking world. He died at the age of 52 after a bicycle accident near Oxford.

Life Wallace was born at Railway Place in Cupar, Fife, the son of master-builder James Wallace and Jane Kelloch. He was the elder of two brothers and was educated at Madras Academy (now Bell Baxter High School) in Cupar before going on to St Andrews University to study arts. He developed a strong interest in the natural world, which led him to spend much time on walks in the countryside, cycling, botany and mountaineering.

Although his parents had encouraged him to take up the study of theology as a precursor to a career in the clergy, Wallace realised that this would not best suit him and chose instead to study the Classics. He was awarded an exhibition at Balliol College, Oxford, where he studied from 1864. In 1867 he became a fellow of Merton College. He gained his Bachelor of Arts the following year, gaining a first class in Moderations and in Literae Humaniores. He was also awarded the Gaisford Prize in 1867 for his work on Greek prose, becoming a tutor at Merton in the same year, and was elected as a Craven Scholar in 1869.

Wallace married Janet Barclay, a childhood friend from Cupar, on 4 April 1872. The couple had three children, a daughter and two sons. His younger brother Edwin Wallace studied at Oxford's Lincoln College and later served as vice-provost of Worcester College between 1881 and his death in 1884. In 1882, Wallace became the successor to Thomas Hill Green as White's Professor of Moral Philosophy at Oxford, a position which he held along with the Merton tutorship until his death fifteen years later.

Wallace's work focused primarily on the study and diffusion of the ideas of the German philosophers Kant, Fichte, Herder, and Hegel, of whom it was said that his knowledge was exceptional. portrayed the German philosopher as engaged in a dialogue with John Locke and David Hume, two of the most influential British Empiricists. He published The Life of Arthur Schopenhauer in 1890 in which his biographical account was accompanied by a critique of the philosopher's rejection of empiricism and materialism. He attacked Schopenhauer's "unconquerable vanity" but praised his insight into the power of art and his belief that "the best life is one predicated on the underlying unity of all experience". He is buried in Holywell Cemetery, Oxford, with his wife and one of his sons.

Works The Logic of Hegel (1873) (contains translation of Hegel's Encyclopaedia of the Philosophical Sciences in Outline), 2nd edition 1892 with introductory volume Prolegomena Epicureanism (1880) Kant (1882) Life of Arthur Schopenhauer (1890) Hegel's Philosophy of Mind (1894) (translation from the Encyclopaedia with five introductory essays) Lectures and Essays on Natural Theology and Ethics (1898)