Thomas Brown (1778—1820)

Scottish philosopher, was born at Kirkmabreck, Kirkcudbright, where his father was parish clergyman. He was a boy of a refined nature, a wide reader and an eager student. Educated at several schools in London, he went to Edinburgh University in 1792, where he attended Dugald Stewart’s moral philosophy class. His attendance was desultory, and he does not appear to have completed his arts course. After studying law for a time he took up medicine. But his great strength lay in metaphysical analysis, as was shown in his answer to the objections raised against the appointment of Sir John Leslie to the mathematical professorship (1805). Leslie, a follower of Hume, was attacked by the clerical party as a sceptic and an infidel, and Brown took the opportunity to defend Hume’s doctrine of causality as in no way inimical to religion. His defence, at first only a pamphlet, became in its third edition a lengthy treatise entitled Inquiry into the Relation of Cause and Effect, and is a fine specimen of Brown’s analytical faculty.

In 1806 he became a medical practitioner in partnership with James Gregory, but, though successful in his profession, preferred literature and philosophy. After twice failing in the attempt to gain a professorship in the university, he was invited, during an illness of Dugald Stewart in the session of 1808—1809, to act as his substitute, and during the following session he undertook a great part of Stewart’s work. The students received him with enthusiasm, due partly to his splendid rhetoric and partly to the novelty and ingenuity of his views.

In 1810 he was appointed as colleague to Stewart, a position which he held for the rest of his life. He wrote his lectures at high pressure, and devoted much time to the editing and publication of the numerous poems which he had written at various times during his life. He was also engaged in preparing an abstract of his lectures as a handbook for his class. His health, never strong, gave way under the strain of his work. He was advised to take a voyage to London, where he died on the 2nd of April 1820.