F. M. Cornford

Francis Macdonald Cornford ( born February 27, 1874 in Eastbourne, † January 3, 1943 in Cambridge ) was a major English classical scholar. He taught at Trinity College, Cambridge, from 1931 as Laurence Professor of Ancient Philosophy.

Cornford attended St Paul's School in London and studied from 1893 in Cambridge, where he was in 1899 appointed Fellow. Both in 1921 and 1928, he competed unsuccessfully for the Regius Chair of Gräzistik at the University of Cambridge. In 1931 he became owner of the newly Laurence Chair in philosophy of antiquity. From Cornford numerous works come to Plato, including the significant comments to the Theaetetus and the Sophist and the Timaeus, but also works on the philosophy of religion.

Cornford was married since 1909 with Frances Crofts Cornford ( née Darwin), the granddaughter of Charles Darwin.

Works (selection)

• Thucydides Mythistoricus, in 1907.
• Religion in the University, 1911.
• From Religion to Philosophy: a study in the origins of western speculation, 1912.
• The Origins of Attic Comedy, 1914.
• Greek Religious thought from Homer to Alexander, 1923.
• The Laws of Motion in Ancient Thought, 1931.
• Plato's Theory of Knowledge: the Theaetetus and Sophist of Plato, 1935.
• Plato's Cosmology: the Timaeus of Plato, 1937.
• Plato and Parmenides, 1939.