Dugald Stewart

Professor at Edinburgh

In 1785 Stewart succeeded Ferguson in the chair of moral philosophy, which he filled for twenty-five years, making it a centre of intellectual and moral influence. Young men were attracted by his reputation from England, Europe and America. Greatly influenced by the Irish Presbyterian Francis Hutcheson who, in the preceding generation, had held the chair of moral philosophy at the University of Glasgow, Stewart's course on moral philosophy embraced, besides ethics proper, lectures on political philosophy or the theory of government.

William Drennan, whose father Thomas Drennan had been secretary to Hutcheson, and who 1791 moved the formation of the Society of United Irishmen in Belfast and in Dublin, was a student and friend. It is from Stewart that Drennan is said to have "imbibed the classical tradition of republican theory, in its most famous English embodiment in the works of John Locke, and its contemporary reincarnation in the works of Richard Price and Joseph Priestley".

Stewart's dissident rationalism greatly influenced Maria Edgeworth and Elizabeth Hamilton. They drew extensively on his work in constructing educational programmes that rested on the assumption that women, and especially mothers, were intellectually capable of understanding the importance of the early association of ideas in the training of children's emotions and reasoning powers.

Stewart spent the summers of 1788 and 1789 in France, where he met Suard, Degérando, and Raynal, and came to sympathise with the revolutionary movement. His political teaching, after the French Revolution, drew suspicion on him. His Edinburgh residence for several years was Whitefoord House on the Royal Mile.

From 1800 to 1801, Stewart gave lectures to undergraduate students on the subject of political economy, the first person to do so. Stewart made himself the leading disciple of Adam Smith and, after Smith's death became his first biographer. In 1793 Stewart had read his Account of the Life and Writings of Adam Smith to the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

In 1797 he appears as "Dougald Stewart, professor of moral philosophy" living at Lothian House (aka Lothian Hutt) near the bottom of the Canongate. Lothian Hutt was built in 1750 by William, Marquess of Lothian, who appears to have been a friend of Stewart. Stewart was still staying here in 1813.

Family

In 1783 Stewart married Helen Bannatyne (a distant cousin), who died in 1787, leaving him an only son, Matthew Stewart FRSE (1784-1851). In 1790 he married Helen D'Arcy Cranstoun, sister of George Cranstoun. His second wife was well-born and accomplished, and he was in the habit of submitting to her criticism whatever he wrote. They had a son and a daughter. The son's death in 1809 brought about his retirement from the active duties of his chair.

His sister, Janet Stewart, married Rev Thomas Miller of Cumnock, and they were parents to Dr Patrick Miller FRSE (1782-1871).

Later life

In 1806 Stewart received in lieu of a pension the nominal office of the writership of the Edinburgh Gazette, with a salary of £300. When he ceased lecturing during the session of 1809–1810, his place was taken, at his own request, by Thomas Brown, who in 1810 was appointed conjoint professor. On the death of Brown in 1820 Stewart retired altogether from the professorship. His successor was John Wilson, known as "Christopher North".

From 1809 onwards Stewart lived mainly at Kinneil House, Bo'ness, which was placed at his disposal by the Duke of Hamilton. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1791. In June 1814 Stewart was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1817.

Freemasonry

Like his father, Rev Dr Matthew Stewart, he was a Scottish Freemason. He was Initiated in the Lodge of his father - Lodge Canongate Kilwinning, No.2, on 4 December 1775.

His friend and fellow Freemason, Robert Burns, made him an honorary member of Lodge St David, Tarbolton, No. 133, on 25 July 1787. This was whilst Stewart was staying at the family seat at Catrine, Ayrshire.

Death

In 1822 he was struck with paralysis, but recovered a fair degree of health, sufficient to enable him to resume his studies. He died in Edinburgh on 11 June 1828, where he was buried in Canongate Churchyard, close to his Edinburgh residence. He is buried in an enclosed vault in the lower section, on its west side.

Memorials

In 1831, and of great public note, a monument was erected by the city on Calton Hill. This is to a design by William Henry Playfair and holds a commanding position in the city skyline, forming one of the city's iconic landmarks.

His memory is also honoured by the "Dugald Stewart Building" (erected 2011) for the University of Edinburgh to house its Philosophy Department, on Charles Street, off George Square.

Influence

Among Stewart's pupils were Lord Palmerston, Sir Walter Scott, Francis Jeffrey, Henry Thomas Cockburn, Francis Horner, Sydney Smith, John William Ward, Lord Brougham, Dr. Thomas Brown, James Mill, Sir James Mackintosh and Sir Archibald Alison.

His reputation rested as much on his eloquence, populism, and style as on original work. He was principally responsible for making the "Scottish philosophy" predominant in early 19th-century Europe. In the second half of the century, Stewart's reputation fell to that of a follower of the work of Thomas Reid.

Stewart upheld Reid's psychological method and expounded the Scottish Common Sense Realism, which was attacked by James Mill and John Stuart Mill. Part of his originality lay in his incorporation of elements of moderate empiricism and the French ideologists Laromiguière, Cabanis and Destutt de Tracy. He opposed the argument of ontology, and Condillac's sensationalism. Immanuel Kant, he said, he could not understand.