John Burnet (classicist)

He was born in Edinburgh the son of John Burnet, advocate, and his wife Jessie, daughter of Dr James Cleghorn Kay RN.ODNB: John Burnet The family lived at 8 Pitt Street in Edinburgh's New Town (later renamed Dublin Street).Edinburgh Post Office Directory 1923

Burnet was educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh, then University of Edinburgh, before winning a scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford, where he obtained first-class honours in Classical Moderations (Greek and Latin) in 1885 and in Literae Humaniores ('Greats', a combination of philosophy and ancient history) in 1887.'Oxford University Calendar 1895: Clarendon Press, 1895: 253, 341 In the course of his undergraduate academic career at Oxford he won the Taylorian Scholarship in French (1885)'Oxford University Calendar 1895: Clarendon Press, 1895: 53 and came second for the Boden Sanskrit Scholarship (1884).Lord Charnwood, 'Memoir', John Burnet, 'Essays and Addresses', New York: Macmillan, 1930: 6. Charnwood states that Burnet 'came second only to a learned Indian'. Reference to 'The Oxford Calendar 1895', Oxford: Clarendon, 1895: 45 lists only Mancherji Pestoryi Khareghat as meeting this description

After taking his degree in 1887 Burnet became an assistant to Lewis Campbell at the University of St. Andrews. He was a master at Harrow School in 1888.'Who Was Who, 1916-1928', London: A. & C. Black, 1962: 151 From 1890 to 1915, he was a Fellow at Merton College, Oxford;{{cite book|editor1-last=Levens|editor1-first=R.G.C.|title=Merton College Register 1900–1964|date=1964|publisher=Basil Blackwell|location=Oxford|page=100}} and from 1892 to 1926 a professor of Greek at St Andrews.'Who Was Who, 1916-1928', London: A. & C. Black, 1962: 151 For a term prior to his St Andrews professorship, he served as Interim Professor of Humanity (Latin) at the University of Edinburgh. He became a Fellow of the British Academy in 1916. In 1909, Burnet was offered, but did not accept, the Chair of Greek at Harvard University. He was Sather Professor in Classical Literature, California, 1925.'Who Was Who, 1916-1928', London: A. & C. Black, 1962: 151

He died in St Andrews and is buried in the Western Cemetery in St Andrews.Greek Secrets Revealed by Ian McHaffie ISBN 978-0-9525026-8-5

In 1894, he married Mary Farmer, the daughter of John Farmer, who wrote the Preface for a collection of essays published after his death, Essays and Addresses.

His sister Annie Forbes Burnet married Theodore Salvesen.Greek Secrets Revealed by Ian McHaffie ISBN 978-0-9525026-8-5

Burnet is best known for his work on Plato. His interest in philosophy and in Plato in particular seems to have begun during his service as assistant to Lewis Campbell at St. Andrews.Myles Burnyeat, "On the source of Burnet's construal of Apology 30b2–4: a correction", The Journal of Hellenic Studies, vol. 125 (2005), pp. 139-142. Burnet was known for defending novel interpretations of Plato and Socrates, particularly the view that the depiction of Socrates in all of Plato's dialogues is historically accurate, and that the philosophical views peculiar to Plato himself are to be found only in the so-called late dialogues. Burnet also maintained that Socrates was closely connected to the early Greek philosophical tradition, now generally known as Pre-Socratic philosophy; Burnet believed that Socrates had been in his youth the disciple of Archelaus, a member of the Anaxagorean tradition (Burnet 1924, vi).

Burnet's philological work on Plato is still widely read, and his editions have been considered authoritative for 100 years, as the 5-volume Oxford Classical Texts critical edition of Plato works and spuria (1900–1907). His commentaries on Plato's Euthyphro, Apology, and Crito and on the Phaedo also remain widely used and respected by scholars. Myles Burnyeat, for example, calls Burnet's Plato: Euthyphro, Apology of Socrates, Crito "the still unsurpassed edition".p. 2 n. 5: Burnyeat. M. "The Impiety of Socrates", Ancient Philosophy 17 (1997): 1–12. S.R. Slings, editor of the new 2003 Oxford Classical Texts edition of Plato's Republic, described Burnet as "a superb editor, with a feeling for Platonic Greek that is unlikely to be ever surpassed."p. 93, S.R. Slings (1998), "Platonis Opera. Tomus I tetralogias I-II continens", Mnemosyne 51 (1):93-102.

{{See also|Neoplatonism|Neopythagoreanism|Pythagoreanism}}

Early Greek Philosophy is a book by John Burnet. Four editions were published by A. & C. Black, Ltd. in Great Britain. The first edition was published in April 1892, the second in June 1908, the third in September 1920 and the fourth, posthumously, in 1930.

From the Preface to the Third Edition (unchanged in the fourth edition):

...the main thesis of my book, and the vital point of the argument is my insistence on the derivation of Atomism (which is admittedly materialistic) from Eleaticism, in accordance with the express statements of Aristotle and Theophrastos...{{Cite book|title=Early Greek Philosophy|last=Burnet|first=John|publisher=A. & C. Black, Ltd.|year=1930|location=Great Britain|page=vi}}

John Burnet noted in his 1892 publication Early Greek Philosophy{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/earlygreekphilo01burngoog|title=Early Greek Philosophy|author=Burnet|first=John|publisher=A. & C. Black, Ltd.|year=1892|location=Great Britain|page=[https://archive.org/details/earlygreekphilo01burngoog/page/n95 88]}}

:The Neoplatonists were quite justified in regarding themselves as the spiritual heirs of Pythagoras; and, in their hands, philosophy ceased to exist as such, and became theology. And this tendency was at work all along; hardly a single Greek philosopher was wholly uninfluenced by it. Perhaps Aristotle might seem to be an exception; but it is probable that, if we still possessed a few such "exoteric" works as the Protreptikos in their entirety, we should find that the enthusiastic words in which he speaks of the "blessed life" in the Metaphysics and in the Ethics (Nicomachean Ethics) were less isolated outbursts of feeling than they appear now. In later days, Apollonios of Tyana showed in practice what this sort of thing must ultimately lead to. The theurgy and thaumaturgy of the late Greek schools were only the fruit of the seed sown by the generation which immediately preceded the Persian War.

A University of St Andrews residential hall was named John Burnet Hall in his honour.{{cite news|title=Memorial to Professor|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Q-A9AAAAIBAJ&sjid=QkgMAAAAIBAJ&dq=john-burnet-hall&pg=5330%2C2284589|access-date=19 May 2013|newspaper=The Glasgow Herald|date=16 June 1962}}

• Early Greek Philosophy. London and Edinburgh: A. and C. Black, 1892. 2nd edition, 1908. 3rd edition, 1920. 4th edition, 1930.
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20060807104846/http://www.classicpersuasion.org/pw/burnet/index.htm An online text of the 3rd edition (1920) of Early Greek Philosophy]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20160130160821/http://makiaea.org/075.html re-edited 5th edition], 2015.
• [https://archive.org/details/earlygreekphilo01burngoog Early Greek Philosophy (1892, Archive.org)]
• Greek Philosophy: Thales to Plato. London, MacMillan, 1914.
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20160130160821/http://makiaea.org/075.html re-edited 2nd edition], 2010.
• Platonism. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1928.
• [https://archive.org/details/highereducationw00burnuoft Higher Education and the War], 1917.
• Essays and Addresses, 1930, includes a [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.114928/page/n11/mode/2up "Memoir"] by Godfrey Rathbone Benson.
• [http://www.ccg.org/english/s/B6.html "The Socratic Doctrine of the Soul"], 1916. (British Academy's 1916 Philosophical Lecture).
• [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.114928/page/n285/mode/2up "Aristotle"], 1924. (British Academy's 1924 Master-Mind Lecture).

• [https://archive.org/details/ethicsaristotle00burngoog The Ethics of Aristotle.] London: Methuen, 1900. [https://archive.org/details/ethicsofaristotl0000aris PDF]
• Platonis Opera: Recognovit Brevique Adnotatione Critica Instruxit (as Ioannes Burnet). Oxford: Oxford Classical Texts, 1900–1907.
• [https://archive.org/details/platosphaedo00platuoft Plato: Phaedo.] Oxford: Clarendon, 1911.
• [https://books.google.com/books?id=AeFDAAAAIAAJ&pg=PP9 Plato: Euthyphro, Apology of Socrates, Crito.] Oxford: Clarendon, 1924. (A student edition, with commentary.)

{{Reflist}}

• The Dictionary of British Classicists, ed. Robert Todd, Bristol: Thoemmes Continuum, 2004.
• W. L. Lorimer and A. E. Taylor, [https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/documents/5271/14p445.pdf "John Burnet, 1863–1928"], Proceedings of the British Academy, 14 (1928), 445–70

{{wikisource|Author:John Burnet|John Burnet}}

• {{Internet Archive author |sname=John Burnet |birth=1863 |death=1928}}
• {{Librivox author |id=9928}}
• John Burnet, Early Greek Philosophy, online text: [https://web.archive.org/web/20060807104846/http://www.classicpersuasion.org/pw/burnet/index.htm]
• [https://archive.org/details/aristotleoneduca00arisuoft Aristotle on Education, being extracts from the Ethics and Politics] (1903)
• [https://archive.org/details/doctrineofsoul00burnuoft The Socratic Doctrine of the Soul] British Academy Lecture (1916)
• [https://archive.org/details/greekrudiments00burn Greek Rudiments] (1918), [https://web.archive.org/web/20160130160821/http://makiaea.org/075.html second edition] (2014), a textbook on diction and idiom of the Attic dialect.
• [https://archive.org/details/legacyofgreece00liviuoft Greek Philosophy], an essay published in The Legacy of Greece (1921)

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Category:1863 births

Category:1928 deaths

Category:People educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh

Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh

Category:Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford

Category:Scottish classical scholars

Category:British scholars of ancient Greek philosophy

Category:Plato scholars

Category:Fellows of the British Academy

Category:Fellows of Merton College, Oxford