John Laird (philosopher)

:"For other John Lairds. see John Laird (disambiguation)"

John Laird (17 May, 1887 – 5 August, 1946) was a philosopher, in the school of New British Realism, who later turned to metaphysical idealism.

John Laird was born at Durris, Kincardineshire, the son of Rev. D.M.W. Laird, a Church of Scotland minister, and Margaret Laird (née Steward).

Laird attended the grammar school of Aberdeen and the University of Edinburgh, where he graduated with a first class degree in philosophy. Laird then moved to Trinity College, Cambridge and gained another first class degree in the moral sciences tripos. He then spent a year at the University of St. Andrews and briefly as professor of philosophy at Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia before Queen's University, Belfast in 1913, where he met Helen Ritchie. They married in 1919 and had one son, who died in childhood.

In 1924 he was appointed Regius Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Aberdeen, a position which he held until his death. He was president of the Aristotelian Society from 1929 to 1930. Laird was a prolific writer and public speaker.

Works

His books included:
* Problems of the Self (1917)
* Study in Religion (1920)
* Several biographies on philosophers such as David Hume and Thomas Hobbes
* The Idea of the Soul (1924)
* The Idea of Value (1929)
* Knowledge, Belief, and Opinion (1930)
* An Enquiry into Moral Notions (1935)
* Theism and Cosmology (1940)
* Mind and Deity (1941).