Synopses & Reviews
JAMES FREDERICK FERRIER - CONTENTS - PAGE INTRODUCTIO . N . . 7 CHAPTER I CHAPTER I1 CHAPTER I11 PHILOSOPH B Y EF ORE FERRIER D S AY . 41 CHAPTER IV FIERCEW ARRES A ND FAITHFU L L O VE S 56 CHAPTER V CHAPTER V1 CHAPTER V11 6 CONTENTS CHAPTER V111 PAGE PROFESSORIA L L IF E . . 122 CHAPTER IX LIFE AT ST. ANDREWS . . 138 CHAPTER X LAST DAYS . . 152 JAMES FKEDERICK FERRIER INTRODUCTION MR. OLIPHAN S T IEATO h N as asked me to write a few words of preface to this little book. If I try, it is only because I am old enough to have had the privilege of knowing some of those who were most closely associated with Ferrier. When I sat at the feet of Professor Campbell Fraser in the Metaphysics classroom at Edinburgh in 1875, Ferriers writings were being much read by us students. The influence of Sir JVilliam Hamilton was fast crumbling in the minds of young men who felt rather than saw that much lay beyond it. We were still engrossed with the controversy, waged in books which now, alas sell for a tenth of their former price, about the Conditioned and the Unconditioned. We still worked at Reid, Hamilton, and Mansel. But the attacks of Mill on the one side, and of Ferrier and Dr. Stirling on the other, were slowly but surely withdrawing our interest. Ferrier had pointed out a path which seemed to lead us in the direction of Germany if we would escape from Mill, and Stirling was urging us in the same sense. It was not merely that Ferrier had written books. He had died more than ten years earlier, but his personality was still a living influence. Echoes of his words came to us through Grant and Sellar. Outside the University, men like Blackwood and Makgill made us feel what a power he had been. But thatwas not all for at least some of us. Mrs. Ferrier had removed to Edinburgh-and I endorse all that my sister says of her rare quality. She lived in a house in Torphichen Street, which was the resort of those attracted, not only by the memory of her husband, but by her own great gifts. She was an old lady and an invalid. But though she could not move from her chair, paralysis had not dimmed her mental powers. She was a true daughter of Christopher North. I doubt whether I have seen her rival in quickness, her superior I never saw. She could talk admirably to those sitting near her, and yet follow and join in the conversation of another group at the end of the room...
Synopsis
This book contains the James Frederick Ferrier edition of Haldane Elizabeth Sanderson's Famous Scots series. James Frederick Ferrier (1808 - 1864) was a Scottish metaphysical writer famous for introducing the term 'epistemology'. This detailed and fascinating biography will be of considerable utility to those with an interest in Ferrier's life and work, and would make for a great addition to collections of antiquarian literature of this ilk. The chapters of this book include: "Early Life", "Social Life in Scotland - Beginning of his Literary Work", "Philosophy before Ferrier's Day", "Development of the Scottish Philosophy, the Old and the New - Ferrier as a Correspondent", etcetera. Elizabeth Sanderson Haldane (1862 - 1937) was an author, philosopher, suffragist, and biographer. Many vintage texts such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive, and it is with this in mind that we are republishing this book now, in an affordable, high-quality, modern edition. It comes complete with a specially commissioned biography of the author.