View source for John Alexander Stewart (philosopher)

{{Short description|Scottish writer, educator and philosopher}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2017}}
{{Use British English|date=December 2017}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
|name = John Alexander Stewart
|image = 
|caption = 
|birth_name = 
|pseudonym = 
|birth_date = 19 October 1846
|birth_place = [[Moffat]], [[Dumfriesshire]], [[Scotland]]
|death_date = 27 December 1933 (aged 87)
|death_place = [[Oxford, England]]
|occupation = Writer, philosopher, educator, [[lecture]]r
|nationality = Scottish
|genre = [[Fiction]], [[poetry]], [[non-fiction]], [[essay]], [[philosophy and literature|philosophical literature]], [[literary criticism]]
|influences = 
|influenced = 
|signature =
|notableworks = ''Notes on the Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle'', ''The Myths of Plato''
|spouse=Helen J. Macmillan (1875–1925)
|children=
}}
'''John Alexander Stewart''' (19 October 1846 – 27 December 1933) was a Scottish writer, educator and [[philosopher]]. He was a university professor and classical lecturer at [[Christ Church, Oxford]] from 1875 to 1883, [[White's Professor of Moral Philosophy]] at [[Oxford]], and professorial fellow of Corpus Christi College, from 1897 to his retirement in 1927. Throughout his academic career, he was an editor and author of works on [[Aristotle]] and considered one of the foremost experts on the subject. His best known books were ''Notes on the Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle'' (1892) and ''The Myths of Plato'' (1905).

==Biography==
John Alexander Stewart was born at [[Moffat]], [[Dumfriesshire]] on 19 October 1846, the eldest son of the Rev. Archibald Stewart, D.D. Educated at [[Edinburgh University]] and [[Lincoln College, Oxford]], he received the [[Newdigate Prize]] for [[English verse]] in 1868; he recited the prize-winning poem, 'The Catacombs', in the [[Sheldonian Theatre|Theatre]], Oxford, on 17 June that year. Stewart took a First in Classical Moderations, 1868, and a First in Greats in 1870. He was awarded his MA three years later. He was elected Senior Student of Christ Church,<ref name="Sadleir">[[Michael Sadleir|Sadleir, Michael]]. ''Michael Ernest Sadler: (Sir Michael Sadler, K. C. S. I.) 1861-1943; A Memoir by His Son''. London: Constable, 1949. (pg. 93)</ref> a position he held from 1870 to 1875, prior to marrying Helen J. Macmillan. Following his graduation, he continued to teach at Christ Church and was a classical lecturer there until 1882,<ref name="Burke">Burke, Edmund, ed. ''The Annual Register of World Events: A Review of the Year''. Vol. 175. London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1934. (pg. 151)</ref> occasional tutor<ref name="Cohen">Cohen, Morton Norton and Roger Lancelyn Green, eds. ''The Letters of Lewis Carroll''. Vol. 1. New York: Oxford University Press, 1979. (pg. 432) {{ISBN|0-19-520090-X}}</ref> and philosophy lecturer until 1897.<ref name="Stanford">Stanford, Donald E., ed. ''The Selected Letters of Robert Bridges''. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1984. (pg. 1014) {{ISBN|0-87413-204-5}}</ref><ref name="Reilly">Reilly, Catherine W. ''Mid-Victorian Poetry, 1860-1879: An Annotated Biobibliography''. London and New York: Mansell, 2000. (pg. 438) {{ISBN|0-7201-2318-6}}</ref>

Over the next decade, he gradually established a formidable reputation as an authority on the ethics of [[Aristotle]]. Among his works were the 2-volume ''Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle'' (1892) and ''The Myths of Plato'' (1905). He was also a contributor to the [[Encyclopædia Britannica]]. In 1897, he was appointed [[White's Professor of Moral Philosophy|White's professor of moral philosophy]] at [[Oxford]]<ref name="Sadleir"/><ref name="Burke"/><ref name="Stanford"/> and Fellow of [[Corpus Christi College, Oxford|Corpus Christi College]].<ref>Holzberger, William G., ed. ''The Letters of George Santayana''. Vol. 5. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2008. (ph. 161) {{ISBN|0-262-19474-0}}</ref> His wife Helen died in 1925<ref name="Cohen"/> and Stewart resigned from his professorship two years later.<ref name="Reilly"/> There were no children by the marriage. Stewart died at Oxford on 27 December 1933.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=34024|page=1112|date=16 February 1934}}</ref><ref>Brandt, Joseph A. "Literary Landmarks of 1934". ''Books Abroad''. 9.1 (Winter 1935): 20+.</ref>

==Bibliography==
*''The Catacombs'' (1868)
*''The English MSS. of the Nicomachean Ethics'' (1882)
*''Remarks on Certain Memorialists'' (1899)
*''Notes on the Nicomachean Ethics'' (1902)
*''The Myths of Plato'' (1905)
*''Plato's Doctrine of Ideas'' (1909)
*'Cambridge Platonists', ''Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics'', ed. J. Hastings, 3, 1910, 167-173
*''Platonism in English Poetry'' (1912)
*''Oxford After the War & A Liberal Education'' (1919) - available online : https://archive.org/details/oxfordafterwarli00stewrich

==References==
:{{A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature}}
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*Morelli, Mark D. ''At the Threshold of the Halfway House: A Study of Bernard Lonergan's Encounter with John Alexander Stewart''. Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts: Lonergan Institute at Boston College, 2007. {{ISBN|0-9700862-5-3}}

{{Authority control}}
{{White's Professor of Moral Philosophy, Oxford}}
{{University of Oxford}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stewart, John Alexander}}
[[Category:1846 births]]
[[Category:1933 deaths]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh]]
[[Category:Alumni of Lincoln College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Fellows of Christ Church, Oxford]]
[[Category:Fellows of Corpus Christi College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Scottish scholars and academics]]
[[Category:Scottish philosophers]]
[[Category:Scottish poets]]
[[Category:19th-century Scottish people]]
[[Category:People of the Victorian era]]
[[Category:People from Moffat]]
[[Category:White's Professors of Moral Philosophy]]