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Frederick Copleston

January 01, 1970

For the member of the Indian Civil Service, see Frederick Selwyn Copleston.

Frederick Charles Copleston SJ CBE FBA (10 April 1907 – 3 February 1994) was an English Roman Catholic Jesuit priest, philosopher, and historian of philosophy, best known for his influential multi-volume A History of Philosophy (1946–75).

The Reverend
Frederick Copleston
SJ CBE FBA
Frederick Copleston, 1987
Born
Frederick Charles Copleston

(1907-04-10)10 April 1907
Taunton, England
Died3 February 1994(1994-02-03) (aged 86)
London, England
Alma materSt. John's College, Oxford
EraContemporary philosophy
RegionWestern philosophy
SchoolChristian philosophy
Main interests
History of philosophy
Arms of Coplestone, lords of the manor of Copleston in Devon: Argent, a chevron engrailed gules between three leopard's faces azure

Copleston achieved a degree of popularity in the media for debating the existence of God with Bertrand Russell in a celebrated 1948 BBC broadcast; the following year he debated logical positivism and the meaningfulness of religious language with his friend the analytic philosopher A. J. Ayer.

Origins edit

Frederick Charles Copleston was born on 10 April 1907 at Claremont in the parish of Trull, near Taunton in Somerset, England, the eldest son of Frederick Selwyn Copleston (1850–1935), a judge of the High Court in Rangoon, Burma, by his second wife, Norah Margaret Little.[1] He was a member of the family of Copleston, lords of the manor of Copleston in Devon until 1659, one of the most ancient in that county according to a traditional rhyme[2] related by John Prince (d.1723):[3]

"Crocker, Cruwys, and Coplestone,
When the Conqueror came were at home"

Biography edit

He was raised an Anglican—his uncle, Reginald Stephen Copleston, was an Anglican bishop of Calcutta; another uncle, Ernest Copleston, was the Anglican Bishop of Colombo. Copleston was educated at Marlborough College from 1920 to 1925.[4] At the age of eighteen, he converted to the Roman Catholic faith, which caused a great deal of stress in his family.[4] Copleston explained his recognition of the objective authority in the Catholic Church:

"It seemed to me that if Christ was truly the Son of God and if he founded a Church to teach all nations in His name, it must be a Church teaching with authority, as her Master did. Obviously one might deny that Christ was the Son of God, and one might reject the claim that he founded a Church. But if these two claims were accepted, it seemed to me that in spite of all its faults the Roman Catholic Church was the only one which could reasonably be thought to have developed out of what Christ established."[5]

His father, though opposed to his son's becoming a Catholic, helped him complete his education at St John's College, Oxford, where he studied from 1925 to 1929. He graduated from Oxford University in 1929 having managed a third in classical moderations and a good second at Greats.[4] After Oxford, Copleston entered St. Mary's College, Oscott as a seminarian for the diocese of Clifton, but realized the life was not for him.[6]

In 1930, he entered instead the Jesuits.[4] After completing the two-year Jesuit novitiate in Roehampton, he followed the traditional course of studies for the priesthood at the Jesuit house of studies in Heythrop, Oxfordshire and in 1937 he was ordained a Jesuit priest there. In 1938 he travelled to Germany to complete his training, returning to Britain just before the outbreak of war in 1939.[4] Copleston was originally destined to study for his doctorate at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, but the war now made that impossible. Instead, he accepted a posting that saw him return to Heythrop in Oxfordshire to teach the history of philosophy to the few Jesuits remaining there.[4]

From this time onwards, Copleston began writing his influential multi-volume A History of Philosophy (1946–75),[7] a textbook that presents clear accounts of ancient, medieval, and modern philosophy.[8] Still highly respected, Copleston's history has been described as "a monumental achievement" that "stays true to the authors it discusses, being very much a work in exposition".[4]

Copleston achieved a degree of popularity in the media for debating the existence of God with Bertrand Russell in a celebrated 1948 BBC broadcast.[9] (See Copleston–Russell debate). The following year he debated logical positivism and the meaningfulness of religious language with his friend the analytic philosopher A. J. Ayer.[10]

Throughout the rest of his academic career, Copleston accepted a number of prestigious titles, including Visiting Professor at Rome's Gregorian University, where he spent six months each year lecturing from 1952 to 1968.[4] In 1970 the Jesuit Heythrop house of studies was relocated to London, where as Heythrop College it became a constituent part of the federal University of London. Copleston became the new college's respected Principal and gave undergraduate courses. His uncontestable mastery of his material immediately won the confidence and respect of the students, who were drawn from among younger Jesuits and junior religious from male and female religious orders, and some lay men and women. Moreover, his affable manner, dry humour and unfailing courtesy made him popular. In that same year 1970, he was made Fellow of the British Academy (FBA), and in 1972 he was given a personal professorship by the University of London. In 1975, he was made an Honorary Fellow of St. John's College, Oxford.[4]

After officially retiring in 1974, he continued to lecture. From 1974 to 1982, Copleston was Visiting Professor at the University of Santa Clara, California, and from 1979 to 1981, he delivered the Gifford Lectures at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, which were published as Religion and the One. These lectures attempted to "express themes perennial in his thinking and more personal than in his history".[4] Toward the end of his life, Copleston received honorary doctorates from a number of institutions, including Santa Clara University, California, Uppsala University, and the University of St Andrews.[4]

Copleston was offered memberships in the Royal Institute of Philosophy and in the Aristotelian Society.[11] In 1993 he was made CBE.[12] Father Frederick Copleston died on 3 February 1994 at St Thomas' Hospital in London, at the age of 86.[4]

Legacy edit

Further information: A History of Philosophy (Copleston)

In addition to his influential multi-volume History of Philosophy (1946–75),[7] one of Copleston's most significant contributions to modern philosophy was his work on the theories of Saint Thomas Aquinas. He attempted to clarify Aquinas's Five Ways (in the Summa Theologica) by making a distinction between in fieri causes and in esse causes. By doing so, Copleston makes clear that Aquinas wanted to put forth the concept of an omnipresent God rather than a being that could have disappeared after setting the chain of cause and effect into motion.[13][14]

Works edit

Other select works

Related works

Hughes, Gerard J. (1987) The Philosophical assessment of theology: essays in honour of Frederick C. Copleston

References edit

  1. ^ Hughes, Gerard J. (2004). "Copleston, Frederick Charles (1907–1994), philosopher and Jesuit". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/57886. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. ^ Referred to in Gerard J. Hughes, Frederick Charles Copleston, Proceedings of the British Association, Vol.87, 1995, pp.277-86, p.277[1]
  3. ^ Prince, John, (1643–1723) The Worthies of Devon, 1810 edition, London, p.274
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Cameron, Jon. "Frederick Charles Copleston". Gifford Lectures. Retrieved 24 November 2010.
  5. ^ Doino, William, Jr., "A Jesuit and His Faith" [2]
  6. ^ Gerard J. Hughes, Copleston, Frederick Charles, 1907-1994, British Academy memoir, p. 178.
  7. ^ a b c "Frederick C. Copleston: An 80th Birthday Bibliography". The Heythrop Journal. 28 (4): 418–438. 1987. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2265.1987.tb00104.x. ISSN 1468-2265.
  8. ^ The original and DoubleDay editions of the History were published in 9 volumes. From 2003 (after the author's death) Continuum added two (previously published) other works by Copleston to the series to present it as a work of 11 volumes.
  9. ^ Open University edited audio excerpt from the Russell/Copleston debate (on the argument from contingency) introduced by Stuart Brown via YouTube, and a Transcript of the full debate.
  10. ^ Beeson, Trevor (2006). Priests and Prelates: The Daily Telegraph Clerical Obituaries. A&C Black. p. 112. ISBN 978-0-82648-100-9. Retrieved 30 March 2016.
  11. ^ "Frederick Charles Copleston". Gifford Lectures. 18 August 2014. Retrieved 29 October 2015.
  12. ^ "Obituary: The Rev Professor Frederick Copleston SJ". The Independent. London. 5 February 1994. Retrieved 24 November 2010.
  13. ^ Hensel, Howard M. (2013). The Prism of Just War: Asian and Western Perspectives on the Legitimate Use of Military Force. Ashgate Publishing. ISBN 9781409499510.
  14. ^ (PDF). Abingdon. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 29 October 2015.
  15. ^ Corbishley, T. (October 1948). "Arthur Schopenhauer. Philosopher of Pessimism. By Frederick Copleston (Burns Oates. 1946. 12s. 6d.)". Philosophy. 23 (87): 373–374. doi:10.1017/S0031819100006641. ISSN 1469-817X. S2CID 170276089.
  16. ^ McNamara, Brian (1976). "Review of A History of Medieval Philosophy". Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review. 65 (259): 265–266. ISSN 0039-3495. JSTOR 30089981.
  17. ^ Description. Retrieved August 18, 2018.
  18. ^ Veatch, Henry (1957). "Review of Aquinas". Speculum. 32 (1): 152–154. doi:10.2307/2849260. ISSN 0038-7134. JSTOR 2849260.
  19. ^ Corbishley, T. (1957). "Review of Aquinas". Philosophy. 32 (120): 86–87. doi:10.1017/S0031819100029247. ISSN 0031-8191. JSTOR 3748547. S2CID 170786646.
  20. ^ reprinted in Ayer, A. J., (1990) The Meaning of Life and Other Essays, the same being reviewed (with attention given to the Ayer/Copleston debate) in: McGinn, Colin (30 August 1990). "Old Scores". London Review of Books. 12 (16).
  21. ^ this 1972 edition was later sold as Volume 11 of the Continuum edition of Copleston's A History of Philosophy from 2003
  22. ^ Connellan, Colm (1976). "Review of Religion and Philosophy". Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review. 65 (259): 261–265. ISSN 0039-3495. JSTOR 30089980.
  23. ^ Vater, Michael (1983) [published version in: The Review of Metaphysics, Vol. 36, No. 3 (March 1983): 700-701]
  24. ^ "Religion & The One: Philosophies East and West". The Gifford Lectures. 19 January 2016. Retrieved 18 September 2019.
  25. ^ this work, which was in 1987 by Geoffrey Hosking for the Los Angeles Times, was later marketed as Volume 10 of the Continuum edition of Copleston's A History of Philosophy from 2003
  26. ^ Gustafson, Richard F. (1 January 1990). "Frederick C. Copleston. Russian Religious Philosophy: Selected Aspects. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1988. xii, 158 pp. $24.95". Canadian-American Slavic Studies. 24 (4): 464–467. doi:10.1163/221023990X00787. ISSN 2210-2396.

External links edit

January 01, 1970
frederick, copleston, member, indian, civil, service, frederick, selwyn, copleston, frederick, charles, copleston, april, 1907, february, 1994, english, roman, catholic, jesuit, priest, philosopher, historian, philosophy, best, known, influential, multi, volum. For the member of the Indian Civil Service see Frederick Selwyn Copleston Frederick Charles Copleston SJ CBE FBA 10 April 1907 3 February 1994 was an English Roman Catholic Jesuit priest philosopher and historian of philosophy best known for his influential multi volume A History of Philosophy 1946 75 The ReverendFrederick CoplestonSJ CBE FBAFrederick Copleston 1987BornFrederick Charles Copleston 1907 04 10 10 April 1907Taunton EnglandDied3 February 1994 1994 02 03 aged 86 London EnglandAlma materSt John s College OxfordEraContemporary philosophyRegionWestern philosophySchoolChristian philosophyMain interestsHistory of philosophy Arms of Coplestone lords of the manor of Copleston in Devon Argent a chevron engrailed gules between three leopard s faces azure Copleston achieved a degree of popularity in the media for debating the existence of God with Bertrand Russell in a celebrated 1948 BBC broadcast the following year he debated logical positivism and the meaningfulness of religious language with his friend the analytic philosopher A J Ayer Contents 1 Origins 2 Biography 3 Legacy 4 Works 5 References 6 External linksOrigins editFrederick Charles Copleston was born on 10 April 1907 at Claremont in the parish of Trull near Taunton in Somerset England the eldest son of Frederick Selwyn Copleston 1850 1935 a judge of the High Court in Rangoon Burma by his second wife Norah Margaret Little 1 He was a member of the family of Copleston lords of the manor of Copleston in Devon until 1659 one of the most ancient in that county according to a traditional rhyme 2 related by John Prince d 1723 3 Crocker Cruwys and Coplestone When the Conqueror came were at home Biography editHe was raised an Anglican his uncle Reginald Stephen Copleston was an Anglican bishop of Calcutta another uncle Ernest Copleston was the Anglican Bishop of Colombo Copleston was educated at Marlborough College from 1920 to 1925 4 At the age of eighteen he converted to the Roman Catholic faith which caused a great deal of stress in his family 4 Copleston explained his recognition of the objective authority in the Catholic Church It seemed to me that if Christ was truly the Son of God and if he founded a Church to teach all nations in His name it must be a Church teaching with authority as her Master did Obviously one might deny that Christ was the Son of God and one might reject the claim that he founded a Church But if these two claims were accepted it seemed to me that in spite of all its faults the Roman Catholic Church was the only one which could reasonably be thought to have developed out of what Christ established 5 His father though opposed to his son s becoming a Catholic helped him complete his education at St John s College Oxford where he studied from 1925 to 1929 He graduated from Oxford University in 1929 having managed a third in classical moderations and a good second at Greats 4 After Oxford Copleston entered St Mary s College Oscott as a seminarian for the diocese of Clifton but realized the life was not for him 6 In 1930 he entered instead the Jesuits 4 After completing the two year Jesuit novitiate in Roehampton he followed the traditional course of studies for the priesthood at the Jesuit house of studies in Heythrop Oxfordshire and in 1937 he was ordained a Jesuit priest there In 1938 he travelled to Germany to complete his training returning to Britain just before the outbreak of war in 1939 4 Copleston was originally destined to study for his doctorate at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome but the war now made that impossible Instead he accepted a posting that saw him return to Heythrop in Oxfordshire to teach the history of philosophy to the few Jesuits remaining there 4 From this time onwards Copleston began writing his influential multi volume A History of Philosophy 1946 75 7 a textbook that presents clear accounts of ancient medieval and modern philosophy 8 Still highly respected Copleston s history has been described as a monumental achievement that stays true to the authors it discusses being very much a work in exposition 4 Copleston achieved a degree of popularity in the media for debating the existence of God with Bertrand Russell in a celebrated 1948 BBC broadcast 9 See Copleston Russell debate The following year he debated logical positivism and the meaningfulness of religious language with his friend the analytic philosopher A J Ayer 10 Throughout the rest of his academic career Copleston accepted a number of prestigious titles including Visiting Professor at Rome s Gregorian University where he spent six months each year lecturing from 1952 to 1968 4 In 1970 the Jesuit Heythrop house of studies was relocated to London where as Heythrop College it became a constituent part of the federal University of London Copleston became the new college s respected Principal and gave undergraduate courses His uncontestable mastery of his material immediately won the confidence and respect of the students who were drawn from among younger Jesuits and junior religious from male and female religious orders and some lay men and women Moreover his affable manner dry humour and unfailing courtesy made him popular In that same year 1970 he was made Fellow of the British Academy FBA and in 1972 he was given a personal professorship by the University of London In 1975 he was made an Honorary Fellow of St John s College Oxford 4 After officially retiring in 1974 he continued to lecture From 1974 to 1982 Copleston was Visiting Professor at the University of Santa Clara California and from 1979 to 1981 he delivered the Gifford Lectures at the University of Aberdeen Scotland which were published as Religion and the One These lectures attempted to express themes perennial in his thinking and more personal than in his history 4 Toward the end of his life Copleston received honorary doctorates from a number of institutions including Santa Clara University California Uppsala University and the University of St Andrews 4 Copleston was offered memberships in the Royal Institute of Philosophy and in the Aristotelian Society 11 In 1993 he was made CBE 12 Father Frederick Copleston died on 3 February 1994 at St Thomas Hospital in London at the age of 86 4 Legacy editFurther information A History of Philosophy Copleston In addition to his influential multi volume History of Philosophy 1946 75 7 one of Copleston s most significant contributions to modern philosophy was his work on the theories of Saint Thomas Aquinas He attempted to clarify Aquinas s Five Ways in the Summa Theologica by making a distinction between in fieri causes and in esse causes By doing so Copleston makes clear that Aquinas wanted to put forth the concept of an omnipresent God rather than a being that could have disappeared after setting the chain of cause and effect into motion 13 14 Works editA History of Philosophy 1946 1975 7 Other select works Friedrich Nietzsche Philosopher of Culture 1942 expanded edition 1975 Arthur Schopenhauer Philosopher of Pessimism 1946 15 Medieval Philosophy 1952 revised edition A History of Medieval Philosophy 1972 16 Aquinas 1955 reprinted from 1976 as Thomas Aquinas 17 18 19 Logical Positivism A Debate with A J Ayer in Edwards Paul Pap Arthur eds A Modern Introduction to Philosophy 1957 20 Contemporary Philosophy Studies of Logical Positivism and Existentialism 1956 republished with a new first chapter in 1972 21 Religion and Philosophy 1974 22 Philosophers and Philosophies 1976 On the History of Philosophy and Other Essays 1979 23 Philosophers and Culture 1980 Religion and the One Philosophies East and West 1982 24 Philosophy in Russia From Herzen to Lenin and Berdyaev 1986 25 Russian Religious Philosophy 1988 26 Memoirs of a Philosopher 1993 Related worksHughes Gerard J 1987 The Philosophical assessment of theology essays in honour of Frederick C CoplestonReferences edit Hughes Gerard J 2004 Copleston Frederick Charles 1907 1994 philosopher and Jesuit Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online ed Oxford University Press doi 10 1093 ref odnb 57886 Subscription or UK public library membership required Referred to in Gerard J Hughes Frederick Charles Copleston Proceedings of the British Association Vol 87 1995 pp 277 86 p 277 1 Prince John 1643 1723 The Worthies of Devon 1810 edition London p 274 a b c d e f g h i j k l Cameron Jon Frederick Charles Copleston Gifford Lectures Retrieved 24 November 2010 Doino William Jr A Jesuit and His Faith 2 Gerard J Hughes Copleston Frederick Charles 1907 1994 British Academy memoir p 178 a b c Frederick C Copleston An 80th Birthday Bibliography The Heythrop Journal 28 4 418 438 1987 doi 10 1111 j 1468 2265 1987 tb00104 x ISSN 1468 2265 The original and DoubleDay editions of the History were published in 9 volumes From 2003 after the author s death Continuum added two previously published other works by Copleston to the series to present it as a work of 11 volumes Open University edited audio excerpt from the Russell Copleston debate on the argument from contingency introduced by Stuart Brown via YouTube and a Transcript of the full debate Beeson Trevor 2006 Priests and Prelates The Daily Telegraph Clerical Obituaries A amp C Black p 112 ISBN 978 0 82648 100 9 Retrieved 30 March 2016 Frederick Charles Copleston Gifford Lectures 18 August 2014 Retrieved 29 October 2015 Obituary The Rev Professor Frederick Copleston SJ The Independent London 5 February 1994 Retrieved 24 November 2010 Hensel Howard M 2013 The Prism of Just War Asian and Western Perspectives on the Legitimate Use of Military Force Ashgate Publishing ISBN 9781409499510 The Cosmological Argument for The Existence of God PDF Abingdon Archived from the original PDF on 4 March 2016 Retrieved 29 October 2015 Corbishley T October 1948 Arthur Schopenhauer Philosopher of Pessimism By Frederick Copleston Burns Oates 1946 12s 6d Philosophy 23 87 373 374 doi 10 1017 S0031819100006641 ISSN 1469 817X S2CID 170276089 McNamara Brian 1976 Review of A History of Medieval Philosophy Studies An Irish Quarterly Review 65 259 265 266 ISSN 0039 3495 JSTOR 30089981 Description Retrieved August 18 2018 Veatch Henry 1957 Review of Aquinas Speculum 32 1 152 154 doi 10 2307 2849260 ISSN 0038 7134 JSTOR 2849260 Corbishley T 1957 Review of Aquinas Philosophy 32 120 86 87 doi 10 1017 S0031819100029247 ISSN 0031 8191 JSTOR 3748547 S2CID 170786646 reprinted in Ayer A J 1990 The Meaning of Life and Other Essays the same being reviewed with attention given to the Ayer Copleston debate in McGinn Colin 30 August 1990 Old Scores London Review of Books 12 16 this 1972 edition was later sold as Volume 11 of the Continuum edition of Copleston s A History of Philosophy from 2003 Connellan Colm 1976 Review of Religion and Philosophy Studies An Irish Quarterly Review 65 259 261 265 ISSN 0039 3495 JSTOR 30089980 Vater Michael 1983 Review of On the History of Philosophy and Other Essays by Frederick Copleston published version in The Review of Metaphysics Vol 36 No 3 March 1983 700 701 Religion amp The One Philosophies East and West The Gifford Lectures 19 January 2016 Retrieved 18 September 2019 this work which was reviewed in 1987 by Geoffrey Hosking for the Los Angeles Times was later marketed as Volume 10 of the Continuum edition of Copleston s A History of Philosophy from 2003 Gustafson Richard F 1 January 1990 Frederick C Copleston Russian Religious Philosophy Selected Aspects Notre Dame IN University of Notre Dame Press 1988 xii 158 pp 24 95 Canadian American Slavic Studies 24 4 464 467 doi 10 1163 221023990X00787 ISSN 2210 2396 External links editFr Frederick C Copleston vs Bertrand Russell on YouTube BBC Radio 28 January 1948 Frederick Copleston on Schopenhauer interview for The Great Philosophers by Bryan Magee BBC 1987 Copleston Frederick Charles 1907 1994 British Academy memoir by Gerard J Hughes E Books by Frederick Charles Copleston available for loan at Open Library Volumes of Copleston s History available for loan at Internet Archive Vol 1 Part I Vol 1 Part II Vol 3 Vol 4 Vol 5 Part I Vol 6 Part II Vol 7 Vol 8 Part I Vol 9 and as originally published Vol 10 and Vol 11 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Frederick Copleston amp oldid 1218526512, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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