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J. Alexander Gunn
(1896–1975)
John Alexander Gunn was born in Liverpool on April 2,
1896, the son of James Gunn of Caithness, Scotland. He was educated at Oulton
School, Liverpool, and proceeded by scholarship to the University of Liverpool
where he read for the Honours degree in classical literature and philosophy
1913-1916. His undergraduate career was interrupted by the 1914-18 war: he
enlisted in 1916 and saw service with the French army, returning to Liverpool
after discharge in 1918 to take a first in classical history and philosophy
with several prizes and distinctions. In 1921 he was appointed tutor in
philosophy and undertook extension and tutorial class work for the University.
He spent a year at the Sorbonne as a research scholar, and the result of his
work there was his Ph.D. dissertation Bergson and his Philosophy, which became
his first book when it was published in 1920, closely followed by his second, Modern
French Philosophy in 1922. Late in 1922 two academic positions were
available to him: he was offered the chair of philosophy at Witwatersrand
University, Johannesburg, South Africa, and at the same time, (largely through
the good offices of A. L. Smith, Master of Balliol and well-known supporter of
the W.E.A.), the post of Director of Extension at the University of Melbourne
in Australia. This position carried a salary of £1,000 p.a., the rank and title
of professor of the University and a seat on the
professorial board. Gunn elected to come to Melbourne and took up his position
as Director in March 1923.
Some of Gunn’s best academic work was done after moving to Melbourne,
publishing The Problem of Time in 1924 and Spinoza in 1925. He
published papers in The Monist and the Australian Journal of
Psychology and Philosophy and was known as a good and lucid lecturer and an
excellent linguist. At Melbourne Gunn
was appointed Chairman of the Extension Board and Director of Tutorial Classes
with rank and title of Professor, working alongside W.R.Boyce Gibson. Second in line
for the job Gunn got was Douglas Copland, then at
the University of Tasmania, who went on to get a job at Melbourne in 1925. A
fierce debate developed between Gunn and Copland concerning the understanding
of the foundations of the burgeoning field of economics, Gunn maintaining that
economics ought to be integrated into the humanities through its interrelations
with sociology and the social sciences on the one hand, and into philosophy via
its inseperable relation to ethics on the other, as outlined here.
Copland argued to the contrary that economics is an independent science more
basic than "the social aspect," and as such set up the Faculty of
Economics and Commerce both at The University of Tasmania and The University of
Melbourne. The year after his arrival at Melbourne, Copland made a study tour
of England and North America on a Rockerfeller
fellowship, during which tour he reports "I shall have a plan on my
return." (Macintyre p.16) The
plan was to bring about a restructuring of the study of sociology such that it
was under Copland's jurisdiction from the Faculty of Commerce, not Gunn's from
the faculty of Arts, effectively dissolving Gunn's professorship and promoting
Gunn's two former tutors to be in charge of sociology under Copland's
supervision, changes which came into effect in 1928. Copland went on to become Vice-Chancellor
of the ANU and to receive a kinghthood, whereas Gunn
was increasingly marginalized at
Melbourne University, his appointment being finally terminated in 1937. To
quote Helen Bourke's excellent essay,
"Gunn died destitute in an old people's home in St. Kilda in May 1975. The
University of Melbourne paid for the funeral." (p.34)
Bibliography
Bergson and His
Philosophy
(London:
Methuen; New York: E.P. Dutton & Co, 1920).
Modern French Philosophy: a
Study of the Development Since Comte
(London:
T. Fisher Unwin; New York: Dodd, Mead & Co, 1922)
PhD submitted to the University of Liverpool in 1921,
published 1922 with a foreward by Henri Bergson
The Philosophy of
Emile Boutroux
The
Monist,
1922
Social
Progress
Inaugural
lecture, University of Melbourne, 16th May 1923
Benedict Spinoza
(Melbourne:
Macmillan in association with Melbourne University Press, 1925)
The
Problem of Time: An Historical & Critical Study
(London:
Allen & Unwin; New York: R. R. Smith Inc, 1929)
"The Problem of Time"
Philosophy (1929):180-191
Spinoza,
The Maker Of Lenses: a play in three acts
(London:
Allen & Unwin, 1932)
Gunn
also published Livelihood (Melbourne: A.H.Massina & Co,
1927),
which were his notes for his
lectures to the Commonwealth Accountant's Student's Society in his capacity as
the Director of Extra-Mural Work at the University of Melbourne 1923-1926,
printed for student cirulation as seven seperate pamphlets, then collected into a single volume in
1927.
