Some Occupants of the Chair of Logic and Metaphysics (1747-1977)

Thomas Spencer Baynes, Chair of Logic and Metaphysics 1864-87

The Chair of Logic and Metaphysics was held from 1864-87 by Thomas Spencer Baynes. His father was the famous Baptist preacher Joseph Baynes from Somerset. Thomas Spencer Baynes himself was remembered as William Hamilton's best logic pupil at the University of Edinburgh. On graduation, he went to London to pursue a career as a journalist and as Assistant Editor of the Daily News. But his health suffered from the stress of overwork (he was described as having "a weak heart and only half a lung"). It was recommended that he take a less demanding position, and was accordingly elected to the Chair of Logic, Rhetoric and Metaphysics at St Andrews. Until the founding of the Berry Chair of English in 1896, it fell to the Professor of Rhetoric to lecture on literature, and Baynes made a study of Shakespeare's Midland dialect (having already published a study of his own Somerset dialect). Baynes did not relax, in 1873 taking on the editorship of the Ninth Edition of Encyclopedia Britannica. He died suddenly shortly before publication in 1887, and the edition is still remembered as one of the most important.

The portrait opposite was painted in 1888 by Lowes Cato Dickinson, a highly successful Victorian painter from London. It was presented t Mrs Baynes in 1888 by pupils and friends. In September 1990 a vandal left a 75 cm long curving scratch across the bottom of this painting. It was subsequently repaired and cleaned and featured in an exhibition of restored local paintings in March 2002 the Crawford Arts Centre in St. Andrews.

John Veitch, Chair of Logic and Metaphysics 1860-4

Born in Peebles and educated in Edinburgh, Veitch became  a philosopher, poet and historian. After holding the chair of philosophy at St. Andrews from 1860-1864,  Veitch (1829-1894) became Professor of Logic at Glasgow University from 1864 until his death.  In 1895, his widow donated his library to the University of Glasgow. It comprises over 400 volumes, comprising mostly early printed editions of the medieval scholastic philosophers, such as William of Ockham, Thomas Bradwardine, Albertus Magnus, Duns Scotus, and John Major.

Andrew Seth, Chair of Logic and Metaphysics 1887-91

Andrew Seth Pringle-Pattison (1856-1931) was born in Edinburgh. He was professor of philosophy at University College, Cardiff (1883-87), and then professor of Logic and Metaphysics at St. Andrews (1887-91) and at Edinburgh (1891-1919). He added Pringle-Pattison to his name in 1898 to meet the conditions of a bequest. He was an influential teacher, and in his writings he examined philosophy through critical interpretations of the great philosophers. He wrote Scottish Philosophy: a comparison of the Scottish and German answers to Hume (1885), Hegelianism and Personality (1887), Man's Place in the Cosmos (1897), The Idea of God in the Light of Recent Philosophy (1917), The Idea of Immortality (1922), and Studies in the Philosophy of Religion (1930).

D.G. Ritchie, Chair of Logic and Metaphysics 1894-1903

Ritchie (1853-1903) was a pivotal social philosopher who was instrumental in merging Idealism with liberalism, utilitarianism, and evolutionary ideas. Ritchie greatly influenced early 20th-century British welfare thinking in his blend of individualist and communitarian arguments and is now recognized as having constructed a vital bridge between social theory and policy. He was chair of Logic and Metaphysics from 1894-1903. After spending two decades at Oxford, Ritchie became chair of Logic and Metaphysics at St. Andrews in 1894 until 1903. Ritchie's qualities as a lecturer were well regarded. He had to give a large number of lectures, but he introduced informal discussions as well. In his class discussions, his versatility and command of a very wide range of subjects impressed his students. "You may shake almost any branch in the garden of knowledge", wrote one, "and you will find that he has tasted the fruit before you, and knows the quality of it well." (College Echoes, vol. 13 (1901-1902), p. 99) Ritchie's students were gratified by his concrete approach to even the most abstruse subjects; through the use of apt and amusing illustrations, "the most complex problems of logic were placed in a light so clear that the dullest might comprehend" (College Echoes, vol. 14 (1902-1903). p. 147)

G.F. Stout, Chair of Logic and Metaphysics 1903-36

Stout can be regarded as both a philosopher and a psychologist. For a time Scotland led the way in establishing psychology in Britain and in 1896 Aberdeen instituted a lectureship in Comparative Psychology to which they appointed G.F.Stout. In 1903 Stout moved to St Andrews as Professor of Logic and Metaphysics.

His books "Analytical psychology" (1896) and his "Manual of Psychology" first published in 1898 underwent several revisions and for several generations of psychology students in Britain were their standard texts. However, Stout was not himself an experimenter, and by the time he came to St. Andrews his principal interests were largely philosophical. Stout remained at St. Andrews until his retirement over 30 years later. 

During that time, several gifted young psychologists came and went. In 1926, C. A. Mace was appointed to a lectureship in the Department of Logic & Metaphysics. He assisted Stout in revising his Manual , and introduced into it the term "experimental psychology", which it was felt Stout did not welcome. 

Mace was determined to set up a laboratory for psychological experiments, a home for which was eventually found in part of the cloisters of St Salvator's Chapel, later to be transferred to the basement of Younger Hall.

In 1979 the psychology department moved to its current location in the Old Library, where for the first time its various resources were housed under one roof. 
 

Stout's wife died in St. Andrews, but after he retired from the St Andrews chair (in 1936) he joined his son in Australia, and died in Sydney in 1944.

The rememberance plaque to Stout and his wife shown opposite, can be found in the Western Cemetery (near the south-east corner) in St. Andrews. 

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