John Laird

Who was John Laird?

John Laird was a philosopher, in the school of New British Realism, who later turned to metaphysical idealism.

John Laird was born at Durris, Kincardineshire, a parish adjacent to the birthplace of famous Scottish philosopher Thomas Reid. He was the son of Rev. D.M.W. Laird, a Church of Scotland minister, and Margaret Laird.

He attended the grammar school of Aberdeen and the University of Edinburgh, where in 1908 he graduated with a first class M.A. degree in philosophy. He spent a brief interval at Heidelberg before entering Trinity College, Cambridge, as a Scholar. He graduated from Cambridge with a B.A.,1st class in both parts of the Moral Sciences tripos. He was an Assistant Lecturer at the University of St. Andrews in 1911 and took up a Professorship of Philosophy at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nove Scotia, in 1912. In the following year he returned to the United Kingdom as Professor of Logic and Metaphysics at Queen's University, Belfast. In 1924 he was appointed Regius Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Aberdeen, a position which he held until his death.