William Duncan (philosopher)
{{Short description|Scottish natural philosopher and classicist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2017}}
{{Use British English|date=April 2017}}
File:Duncan, William – The elements of logic, 1811 – BEIC 769468.jpg
William Duncan (1717 in Aberdeen – 1760 in Aberdeen) was a Scottish natural philosopher and classicist, professor of natural philosophy at Marischal College, Aberdeen.
Educated at Marischal College, Aberdeen, he was appointed professor of natural philosophy there in 1752. His popular Elements of Logic, first published in Robert Dodsley's The Preceptor (2 vols, London, 1748), combined a Lockean theory of knowledge with syllogistic logic.{{Citation | last=Haakonssen | first=Knud | year=2006 | contribution=Duncan, William | editor-last=Haakonssen | editor-first=Knud | title=The Cambridge History of Eighteenth-Century Philosophy | publisher=Cambridge University Press | volume=2 | pages=1166}} He translated the Commentaries of Julius Caesar and orations of Cicero; at his death, translations of Plutarch's Lives and a continuation of Thomas Blackwell's Court of Augustus were left unfinished.John Westby-Gibson, [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/823 ‘Duncan, William (1717–1760)’], rev. Patrick Bullard, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2009, accessed 6 Dec 2009
Works
- {{citation |last=Duncan |first=William |author-link=William Duncan (philosopher) |display-authors=0 |title=The Elements of Logick in Four Books |date=1748 |publisher=R. Dodsley |location=London }}.
- {{citation |last=Julius Caesar |first=Gaius |authorlink=Julius Caesar |display-authors=0 |editor-last=Duncan |editor-first=William |editor-link=William Duncan (philosopher) |display-editors=0 |title=The Commentaries of Caesar, Translated into English, to Which Is Prefixed, A Discourse Concerning the Roman Art of War |date=1753 |publisher=J. & R. Tonson |location=London }}.
- {{citation |last=Tullius Cicero |first=Marcus |authorlink=Cicero |display-authors=0 |editor-last=Duncan |editor-first=William |editor-link=William Duncan (philosopher) |display-editors=0 |title=Cicero's Select Orations, Translated into English, with the Original Latin, from the Best Editions, in the Opposite Page, and Notes Historical, Critical, and Explanatory |date=1756 |publisher=G. Keith |location=London }}.
Duncan is also sometimes miscredited with The Elements of Moral Philosophy written by David Fordyce.{{citation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gB9liJb5o7UC |last=Sher |first=Richard B. |title=The Enlightenment and the Book: Scottish Authors and Their Publishers in Eighteenth-Century Britain, Ireland, and America |location=Chicago |publisher=University of Chicago Press |date=2006 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=gB9liJb5o7UC&pg=PA135 135] |isbn=9780226752549 }}.
References
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Category:Alumni of the University of Aberdeen
Category:18th-century Scottish philosophers
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