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A VICTORIAN FRAME OF MIND: THE THOUGHT OF JOHN CLARK MURRAY A VICTORIAN FRAME OF MIND THE THOUGHT OF JOHN CLARK MURRAY By CHARLES NICHOLAS TERPSTRA, B.A. A Thesis Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts McMaster University April 1983 MASTER OF ARTS (1983) McMASTER UNIVERSITY (History) Hamilton, Ontario TITLE: A Victorian Frame of Mind: The Thought of John Clark Murray AUTHOR: Charles Nicholas Terpstra, B.A. (McMaster University) SUPERVISOR: Dr. A.R. Allen NUMBER OF PAGES: vi, 220 ii Abstract John Clark Murray (1836 - 1917) held the Chair of Mental and Moral Philosophy at Queen's College from 1862 to 1872, and at McGill University from 1872 until his retirement in 1903. The purpose of the present study is to offer a close historical examination of a thinker who has often been treated as a transitional thinker in histories of philosophical activity in nineteenth century Canada. The opening biographical chapter establishes the Scottish cultural tradition in which Murray was raised and whose social and educational values he continued to perpetuate in his own writing and teaching. The Scottish tradition clarifies the critical discussion in Chapter Two of some of the ambiguities of Murray's position with regard to the philosophical movements of the nineteenth century. In particular, the difficulties of classing Murray with either the Scottish Common Sense Realists, the Neo-Kantian or Neo-Hegelian Idealists, or the rising group of 'professional' philosophers are considered. Specific elements of the intellectual framework of John Clark Murray's thought are dealt with in Chapter Three. Such characteristic concerns as the structure of knowledge, the relation of materialism and idealism, freedom and necessity, and moral philosophy are considered in them­ selves and as components of the unified order of truth which Murray found best expressed in Christianity. The final chapter focuses on Murray's effort to formulate a response to the social problems iii emerging as a consequence of industrialism. After establishing the ideological strength of Murray's economic and political liberalism, this chapter traces the efforts of a concerned liberal to understand contemporary problems and of fer solutions to them. iv Acknowledgements I wish to express thanks to Dr. A.R. Allen for his help in piloting me through this project with suggestions and criticisms; had they all been followed, this work could well have been finished much earlier than it was. Thanks are also due to Dr. T.E. Willey for recommended improvements to the style and contents of the text. Dr. D.F. Norton's generosity in the use of materials he had collected was critical at an early stage in research, as was Dr. E. Trott's later in the course of the project. The archivists at the McGill University Archives and the Queen's University Archives provided a level of assistance which demonstrated high professional standards and greatly facilitated the research carried out in the two collections. And finally to Angela, for faith and encouragement. To her I owe more than thanks can repay. v Table of Contents Abstract iii Acknowledgements v Table of Contents vi Introduction . 1 Chapter One: Shaping a New Culture 4 Notes to Chapter One 36 Chapter Two: The Critical Framework . 44 Notes to Chapter Two 77 Chapter Three: The Intellectual Framework . 83 Notes to Chapter Three . 123 Chapter Four: Towards a Just Society. 129 Notes to Chapter Four 192 Conclusion 202 Bibliography • 208 vi INTRODUCTION The image of the nineteenth century as an age of overturned orthodoxies has been so firmly established as to become an historio­ graphical commonplace. Although the eighteenth century is hardly renowned as an age of faith, the nineteenth is commonly seen as the time when those beliefs which did weather the winds of Enlightenment rationalism were finally sunk in the waves of secularism, materialism and higher criticism, with only the flotsam and jetsam left to wash ashore on Dover Beach. In consequence, nineteenth century intellectual history is pre-occupied with transitions, and with the deaths and births of schools and theories by which transitions are marked. The theme of transition has marked the majority of studies of philosophical activity in nineteenth century Canada. While this theme aptly conveys the sense of developments in the period, it can occasionally do rough justice to those thinkers who do not wholly fit the established pattern. John Clark Murray is one such figure. As a philosopher who falls between the two schools of Common Sense Realism and Neo-Hegelian Idealism which set the poles of Canadian thought in the period, he has most often been interpreted in terms appropriate to larger synthetic studies without yet having received thorough historical treatment on his own terms. The purpose of the present study is to of fer a closer historical and cultural examination of this 'transitional thinker' in an attempt to determine the intellectual framework and personal 1 2 agenda of a man who held an ambiguous position in the fraternity of North American philosophers. The opening biographical chapter establishes the Scottish cultural tradition in which John Clark Murray was raised and whose social and educational values he continued to perpetuate in his own writings and teaching. The Scottish tradition clarifies the critical discussion in Chapter Two·of some of the ambiguities in Murray's position vis-a-vis the philosophical movements of the nineteenth century. In particular, the difficulties of classing Murray with either the Scottish Common Sense Realists, the Neo-Kantian or Neo-Hegelian Idealists and, indeed, 'professional' philosophers will be considered. From the discussion of historical ambiguities, the study will move to ambiguities of a different sort with the reconstruction in Chapter Three of the intellectual framework of John Clark Murray's thought. Such characteristic concerns as the structure of knowledge, the relation of materialism and idealism, freedom and necessity, and moral philosophy will be considered in themselves and as components in the unified order of truth which Murray found to be best expressed through Christianity. Finally, the study will focus in Chapter Four on Murray's effort to formulate a response to the social problems emerging as a consequence of industrialization. After establishing the dogmatic strength of Murray's economic and political liberalism, this chapter will trace the efforts of a concerned liberal to under­ stand contemporary problems and of fer solutions to them. Though the solutions are first formulated within the liberal political creed, 3 they come increasingly to reflect an apolitical and amillenial under­ standing of Christian ethics. CHAPTER ONE Shaping a Young Culture John Clark Murray was born March 19, 1836, a year marked by the rise to a philosophic chair of one man who led British philosophy at mid-century, Sir William Hamilton, and the birth of another who was to do much to bring a new -- or renewed -- spirit to that philosophy later in the century, Thomas Hill Green. Murray was born in the industrial town of Paisley in western Scotland, one of the elder children of a businessman and rising liberal politician David Murray, and Elizabeth Clark, a member of a family active in Paisley cloth and thread manufacturing. The year was as auspicious for the Murray family as for British philosophy: 1836 was also marked by the election of David Murray to municipal council with a slim majority soon after 1 the 1833 reform of the Scottish municipal system. Election victory brought greater responsibility than David Murray may have anticipated. The beginning of Murray's political career coincided with the beginning of yet another of the periodic and prolonged depressions which marked the transition of the small and stable cloth town outside of Glasgow into a large textile manufacturing centre. Paisley's rapid growth in times of prosperity only increased its problems in times of depression, and the city had seen recurring unemployment, hunger, and workers' demonstrations for economic and parliamentary reform since the end of the Napoleonic 4 5 2 wars. It was in these conditions that David Murray worked for economic reform, first as Manager of the Poor concerned with unemployment relief in 1832, and after 1836 through his offices in the political system. He had work enough: the depression in the cloth industries which began in 1836 lasted for fourteen years, throwing an estimated 14,000 to 17,000 people out of work in a town of less than 40,000, and working its way systematically through the economy of the whole community, bankrupt­ 3 ing secondary and service industries and finally the town itself. David Murray was in municipal government for the duration of the depression, first as town Treasurer and after 1844 as the Chief Magistrate, or Provost. In order to repair the economic health of the town, he encouraged further mechanization and diversification of local industries. Although recovery did not begin until after he had left office in 1850, David Murray had gained sufficient confidence among both workers and manufacturers to be re-elected in 1869. He was, according to his son, a liberal in whom conservatives had confidence, working for social change but ref using to strain traditional forms of 4 government in. or d er to ac h"ieve it.. David Murray's career and political views are of significance in this study of his son because comparison of the two shows how closely the son followed the ideals, if not precisely the path of his father. The debt was far-reaching. John Clark inherited a form of the evangelical theology and social concern which had led his father to quit the Church of Scotland in the Free Church secession of 1843.

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