Category: Thomas Duddy

Thomas Duddy, philosopher, teacher and poet, died on this day last year (15th June, 2012), aged 62.

Frequent readers of this blog will know that Dr Tom Duddy is something of a patron saint of this site. His Dictionary of Irish Philosophers (2004) is used both for selection and information purposes. Within its pages are many forgotten thinkers, some deservedly, some rewarding a second look. His History of Irish Thought(2002), described as “strikingly original and sorely needed” by Terry Eagleton, is a wonderful survey of Irish thought and thinkers from the 7th to the 20th century. He also edited two important anthologies of Irish writing on philosophical questions, Irish Philosophy in the Nineteenth Century (2002) and The Irish Response to Darwinism (2003).

Born in Ramolin near Shrule, Co Mayo, he studied English and philosophy in University College Galway (now National University of Ireland, Galway). His graduate studies in philosophy focused on philosophy of mind, publishing Mind, Self and Interiority, “a critique of the indiscriminate anti-Cartesianism of contemporary philosophy of mind” in 1995. As well as his work in Irish philosophy, he also wrote on the question of morality and the environment, and on the visual arts. He was senior lecturer in the department of philosophy at the National University of Ireland, Galway.
Continue reading “In Memoriam: Thomas Duddy” →

Description and contents (from Routledge)

By Thomas Duddy.

The first complete introduction to the subject ever published, A History of Irish Thought presents an inclusive survey of Irish thought and the history of Irish ideas against the backdrop of current political and social change in Ireland.

Contents

Preface Acknowledgements

1 Interpreting Marvels: The Irish Augustine

2 The Philosophy of Creation: John Scottus Eriugena
Eriugena, Peter of Ireland, Richard Fitzralph

3 Nature Observed: Robert Boyle, William Molyneux, and the New Learning
Robert Boyle, William Molyneux, Michael Moore

4 John Toland and the Ascendancy of Reason
    John Toland, Peter Browne, Edward Synge, Philip Skelton, William King, Robert Clayton

5 Wonderfully Mending the World: George Berkeley and Jonathan Swift
    George Berkeley, Jonathan Swift

6 Against the Selfish Philosophers: Francis Hutcheson, Edmund Burke, and James Usher
Francis Hutcheson, Edmund Burke, James Usher

7 Peripheral Visions (1): Irish Thought in the Nineteenth Century
Daniel O’Connell, George Ensor, William Thompson, Anna Doyle Wheeler, Henry MacCormac

8 Peripheral Visions (2): Irish Thought in the Nineteenth Century
John Elliot Cairnes, John Tyndall, Gerald Molloy, J.J. Murphy, G.G. Stokes, Benjamin Kidd, Frances Power Cobbe, William Rowan Hamilton, Oscar Wilde

9 Between Extremities: Irish Thought in the Twentieth Century
W.B. Yeats, J.O. Wisdom, M. O’C. Drury, Iris Murdoch, William Desmond, Philip Pettit

The book covers a wide range of philosophers and thinkers, many of whom have been largely forgotten. Clearly written and endlessly fascinating.

Imperial history is taken as a standard for all national history, as if nations that have been the target of invasion, conquest, and colonisation cannot have histories appropriate to themselves — histories that tell a story of disruption, displacement, and discontinuity. […]
There is, of course, such a thing as Irish intellectual thought but it can’t be characterized in imperially nationalistic terms.

From the Preface of A History of Irish Thought, Thomas Duddy. via @judystout1