Samuel Alexander

Samuel Alexander was an Australian-born British philosopher who made significant contributions to metaphysics, philosophy of religion, and philosophy of language. He was known for his views on emergent evolution, atheism, the problem of evil, causation, and the interpretation of Locke and Hume. Alexander was born in Sydney on 6 January 1859, the son of Alexander Mackie, a professor of education and principal of the Sydney Teachers College, and Annie Burnett Duncan Mackie, a schoolteacher. He graduated from the University of Sydney in 1878 with first-class honours in Greek and Latin and a scholarship in philosophy. He studied under John Anderson, a Scottish realist philosopher who influenced his later views. He received the Wentworth Travelling Fellowship to study at Oriel College, Oxford, where he graduated with first-class honours in Literae Humaniores in 1882. During his time at Oxford, Alexander became friends with other prominent philosophers such as F. H. Bradley, Bernard Bosanquet, William James, and Henri Bergson. He also developed an interest in psychology and visited Germany to learn from Wilhelm Wundt and Hermann von Helmholtz. He returned to Australia in 1883 as a lecturer in philosophy at the University of Melbourne. In 1887, he received the Green Prize for his essay "Moral Order and Progress". In 1893, Alexander moved to England as a professor of philosophy at Owens College (later the University of Manchester). He remained there until his retirement in 1924. He was the first Jewish fellow of an Oxbridge college and was elected a fellow of the British Academy in 1919. He also received honorary degrees from several universities and was appointed to the Order of Merit in 1930. Alexander wrote six books and many articles on various philosophical topics. His most widely known book is Space, Time and Deity (1920), which presents his metaphysical system of emergent evolution. According to this system, reality consists of a hierarchy of levels of existence that emerge from each other in a process of creative synthesis. The lowest level is space-time, which is the universal matrix of all existence. From space-time emerge matter, life, mind, and deity. Each level has its own qualities and laws that are not reducible to those of the lower levels. Deity is the highest level of existence that is still emerging from mind and represents the ideal or final end of evolution. Another influential book by Alexander is The Religious Spirit of the World (1924), which examines the nature and origin of religion from a naturalistic perspective. He argues that religion is a natural expression of human emotion and imagination that arises from the experience of wonder and awe at the mystery of existence. He also discusses the problem of evil and defends a form of atheism that rejects the existence of a personal God but acknowledges the possibility of a cosmic spirit or force. Alexander also made contributions to philosophy of religion, especially on the topics of miracles, prophecy, revelation, immortality, and ethics. He developed a naturalistic theory of miracles that denies any supernatural intervention in nature but allows for rare and extraordinary events that have religious significance for human observers. He also proposed a rationalist theory of prophecy that explains it as a form of intuitive insight into the tendencies and possibilities of history. He rejected any notion of supernatural revelation as incompatible with human reason and freedom. He also denied any personal immortality but affirmed a cosmic immortality that consists in the participation of individual minds in the universal mind or deity. Alexander was also interested in the history of philosophy and wrote books on Locke (Locke's Theory of Knowledge , 1908) and Hume (Hume and his Philosophy , 1932). He interpreted Locke as a precursor of empiricism and Hume as a precursor of naturalism. He also compared and contrasted their views on causation, substance, personal identity, and morality. Alexander was a clear and rigorous thinker who always sought to expose and resolve philosophical problems. He was also a genial and generous person who could express disagreement in a polite and respectful manner. He died of cancer on 13 September 1938 in Manchester. He was cremated at the Oxford Crematorium and his ashes were scattered in the garden of remembrance.