John Henry Muirhead

Who was John Henry Muirhead?

John Henry Muirhead was a British philosopher best known for having initiated the Muirhead Library of Philosophy in 1890. He became the first person named to the Chair of Philosophy at the University of Birmingham in 1900.

Born in Glasgow, Scotland, he was educated at the Glasgow Academy, and proceeded to Glasgow University, where he was deeply influenced by the Hegelianism of Edward Caird, the Professor of Moral Philosophy. He graduated MA in 1875. The same year he won a Snell exhibition at Balliol College, Oxford, to which he went up in Trinity Term 1875. His Library was originally published by Allen & Unwin and continued through to the 1970s. His Library is seen as a crucial landmark in the history of modern philosophy, publishing a number of prominent 20th Century philosophers including Ernest Albee, Brand Blanshard, Francis Herbert Bradley, Axel Hagerstrom, Henri Bergson, Edmund Husserl, Bernard Bosanquet, Irving Thalberg, Jr., Georg Wilhelm Hegel, Bertrand Russell and George Edward Moore. In 2002, the Library was made available in a 95 volume set.

Some of J.H. Muirhead's writings:

The Inner Life in Relation to Morality: A Study in the Elements of Religion