Renford Bambrough

Renford Bambrough John, nickname Renford ( born April 29, 1926 in Silksworth, County Durham, † January 17, 1999 in Cambridge ) was a British philosopher and historian of philosophy.

Life

Bambrough came from a coal mining region. His father was an electrician in the Silksworth Colliery, as on May 3, 1926, there was a general strike. He had a twin brother Richard, who had congenital learning difficulties. Both his origin and his responsibility for his brother influenced him for his life. Early on, his philosophical interest showed in his participation in a discussion group of students in Sunderland, including his future wife Moira Mahoney, and in discussions with miners during his public employment service in 1944 as a Bevin Boy in the Wearmouth Colliery.

After studying at St John 's College, Cambridge Bambrough was a Fellow of the college (1950-1999), the Dean (1964-1979) and president (1979-1983) and at the same time University Lecturer in Classics (1957-1966) and University Lecturer in Moral Sciences ( 1966-1991 ). From 1973 to 1994 he was also editor of the philosophical journal Philosophy.

Bambrough was in the last phase of his life, affected by a degenerative neurological disease, Lewy body dementia.

Since 1952 he was married to Moira Mahoney and had with her ​​a son and three daughters.

Research priorities

Bambrough dealt first with Plato and Aristotle and Karl Popper's attack on Plato's theory of society. In Cambridge, George Edward Moore, Ludwig Wittgenstein and John Wisdom exerted a particularly strong influence on him. His employment with Wittgenstein led to the more powerful and controversial essay Universals and Family Resemblance ( 1961). Bambrough also worked for moral philosophy, the meaning and logic of religious beliefs and the nature of philosophy and philosophical problems.

Writings (selection )

Monographs and Editorial Boards

  • New essays on Plato and Aristotle. Renford Bambrough Edited by. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London 1965.
  • Plato, Popper and politics. Some Contributions to a modern controversy. Heffer, Cambridge; Barnes & Noble, New York 1967.
  • Reason, truth and God. Methuen, London 1969, reprint 1979.
  • Wisdom. Twelve essays. Renford Bambrough Edited by. Blackwell, Oxford 1974 -. ( Festschrift for John Wisdom ). - Rec by Godfrey Vesey, in: Mind New Series, Vol 85, No. 337 (Jan., 1976), pp. 124-126, online.
  • Moral skepticism and moral knowledge. Humanities Press, Atlantic Highlands, NJ 1979. - Rec by Douglas J. Den Uyl, in: Reason Papers no. 7 ( Spring 1981), 109-114, online ( PDF, 298 kB).

Text editions

  • The philosophy of Aristotle. A new selection. With an introduction and commentary by Renford Bambrough. New translations by AE Wardman and JL Creed. New American Library, New York 1963.
  • Plato, The Republic. Translated by A. D. Lindsay. Introduction and notes by Renford Bambrough. Dent, London 1976.

Article

  • Universals and Family resemblances, in: Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, New Series, Vol 61, 1960-1961, Ss. 207-222, online.
102272
de