F. M. Cornford

Who was F. M. Cornford?

Francis Macdonald Cornford, FBA was an English classical scholar and poet; because of the similarity of his Christian name and his wife's, he was known to family as "FMC" and his wife Frances Cornford was known as "FCC".

He was educated at St Paul's School and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was a Fellow from 1899 and held a university teaching post from 1902. He became Laurence Professor of Ancient Philosophy in 1931 and was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1937.

His work Thucydides Mythistoricus argued that Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War was informed by Thucydides' tragic view. From Religion to Philosophy: A Study in the Origins of Western Speculation sought out the deep religious and social categories and concepts that informed the achievements of the early Greek philosophers. He returned to this theme in Principium Sapientiae: The Origins of Greek Philosophical Thought. In some circles he may be better known for his Microcosmographia Academica, the classic insider's satire on academic politics. It is the source of a number of catchphrases, such as the doctrine of unripeness of time, The Principle of the Wedge, and Principle of the Dangerous Precedent.