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Palace Green Library
Palace Green
DURHAM
DH1 3RN
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)191 334 2972
Email: pg.library@durham.ac.uk
Philosophy
The resources of Archives and Special Collections are rich in philosophical texts, in manuscript and print, and in papers of philosophers, and the historical development of Philosophy as an academic subject at Durham University.
General
Resources for some specific areas are highlighted below, but resources for many more specific topics can be discovered by searching for the appropriate topic (such as Philosophy or Ethics or Metaphysics etc) in Discover and by restricting the search to ‘Durham Archives’ or by searching the printed catalogue by selecting the topic as a subject or keyword and restricting the search to ‘Special Collections’ or ‘Ushaw College’.
Philosophy as an Academic Discipline
From the beginning, the university had Readers in Moral Philosophy (Revd J. Miller) and Natural Philosophy (Charles Whitley). The former did not last long and it was not until later in the 19th century that Logic appeared on the syllabus for the general BA degree. Philosophy became a discrete discipline at the university in around 1910 when Arthur Robinson was appointed Professor of Logic and Psychology and Frank Byron Jevons became Professor of Philosophy. A year later, Reinhold Hoernlé was appointed Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy in Armstrong College in Newcastle. At this time the BA Honours degree included papers on Greek Philosophical Authors (Plato and Aristotle), and Mental and Moral Philosophy comprising Logic, Psychology, Metaphysics, and Ethics. When departments were formally established in the university in 1939, Philosophy was amongst them, and so it has remained, losing its confederate at King’s in Newcastle in 1963.
Printed Works
This development of the subject and department of Philosophy in the university is reflected in the university’s own archive, in central, faculty and departmental files (which include some Wittgenstein notes), in the records of the meetings of its various committees from Senate and Council down, in the exam papers, pass lists and mark sheets for the subject, and the university’s publications of such as the Gazette, Calendar, Journal, and Vice-Chancellor’s Reports, and newsletters and the like. The archive also includes the formal legal documents of the university itself, including its charters, various Acts of Parliament, statutes, memoranda of association etc. There is also material on the teaching of Philosophy at the Catholic Seminary that was Ushaw College (1808-2011) just outside Durham, whose archive is still held at the college and administered by Archives and Special Collection staff. Also at Ushaw is the archive of the English College in Lisbon (1624-1973) that similarly counted Philosophy amongst the disciplines for its students.
The Archives and Special Collections section of the Library in the historic Palace Green Library, includes major collections of rare books and manuscripts in the nationally-designated library of the 17th century Bishop of Durham John Cosin, and also the libraries of 19th century president of Magdalen College Oxford J.M. Routh and various members of the Sharp family of Bamburgh Castle. These contain many early editions of texts that are used by researchers at Durham, including quantities of works for instance of and on Aristotle in various languages. There are also earlier editions in the many medieval manuscripts of arguably the most comprehensive surviving monastic library in the country, that of the Cathedral, currently held at PGL. Philosophical texts and devotional works can also be found in the rich Catholic resource of the library at Ushaw College, including the book collections also of the former English College in Lisbon and various Catholic parish libraries, complemented by further Catholic book collections at Palace Green Library of the Poor Clares of Woodchester and Darlington, and the Canonesses of the Holy Sepulchre built up largely in exile in Liege. By contrast, Quaker collections are also well represented in those of the Sunderland and Newcastle communities. There is also a substantial History of Science (Natural Philosophy) collection of books.
The Midgley Papers
One of the most significant recent additions to the collections has been the papers of the eminent Newcastle University, and briefly Durham before Newcastle existed, philosopher Mary Midgley (1919-2018). The papers reflect a life’s work on a broad range of themes, including human nature, non-human animals, environmental issues, science, the connection between thinking, feeling, and imagination, and the role that philosophy has to play in public life. They comprise published and unpublished materials, including books, articles, drafts, radio scripts, and correspondence relating to her life and work. They also contain work by Mary’s husband, Geoff Midgley, a philosopher specialising in logic and the philosophy of language.
Other Philosophers’ Papers
Other philosophers represented in the archives are; Karl Britton (1909-1983, another Newcastle academic who worked much on J.S. Mill), A.S. Farrar (1826-1905, notes on his History of Philosophy lectures), F.B. Jevons (1858-1936 Professor of Philosophy in Durham who worked on Greek Philosophers, and personality and philosophy), Sir Laurens van der Post (1906-1996 philosopher amongst many other attributes), Baroness Mary Warnock (1924-2019, a philosopher of morality, education and mind, but just one essay in Add.MS. 2032), Doreen Bretherton (1923-1969, departmental lecturer, papers in the department’s archive), and Bishop Basil Butler (1902-1986, a prominent Catholic theological scholar and ecumenist who explored metaphysics amongst other topics). Then there are the papers of the British Teilhard Association which existed 1965-2017 to promote the study of the works, thought and teaching of the priest-scientist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J. (1881-1955), who believed in a dynamic universe moving towards ultimate completion in a cosmic centre of convergence known as the "Omega Point".
