Caird, Edward
CAIRD, EDWARD (1835-1908), British philosopher and theologian, brother of John Caird (q.v.), was born at Greenock on the 22nd of March 1835, and educated at Glasgow University and Balliol College, Oxford. He took a first class in moderations in 1862 and in Literae humaniores in 1863, and was Pusey and Ellerton scholar in 1861. From 1864 to 1866 he was fellow and tutor of Merton College. In 1866 he became professor of moral philosophy in the university of Glasgow, and in 1893 succeeded Benjamin Jowett as master of Balliol. With Thomas Hill Green he founded in England a school of orthodox neo-Hegelianism (see Hegel, ad fin.), and through his pupils he exerted a far-reaching influence on English philosophy and theology. Owing to failing health he gave up his lectures in 1904, and in May 1906 resigned his mastership, in which he was succeeded by James Leigh Strachan-Davidson, who had previously for some time, as senior tutor and fellow, borne the chief burden of college administration. Dr Caird received the honorary degree of D.C.L. in 1892; he was made a corresponding member of the French Academy of Moral and Political Science and a fellow of the British Academy. His publications include Philosophy of Kant (1878); Critical Philosophy of Kant (1889); Religion and Social Philosophy of Comte (1885); Essays on Literature and Philosophy (1892); Evolution of Religion (Gifford Lectures, 1891-1892); Evolution of Theology in the Greek Philosophers (1904); and he is represented in this encyclopaedia by the article on Cartesianism. He died on the 1st of November 1908.
For a criticism of Dr Caird's theology, see A.W. Benn, English Rationalism in the 19th Century (London, 1906).
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
