Background
He was born in Perthshire the son of John Drummond of Perth.
(The writings of William James represent one of America's ...)
The writings of William James represent one of America's most original contributions to the history of ideas. Ranging from philosophy and psychology to religion and politics, James composed the most engaging formulation of American pragmatism. 'Pragmatism' grew out of a set of lectures and the full text is included here along with 'The Meaning of Truth', 'Psychology', 'The Will to Believe', and 'Talks to Teachers on Psychology'.
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Diplomat philosopher politician
He was born in Perthshire the son of John Drummond of Perth.
He was educated at Oxford University.
His book is arguably important in the development of the ideas of English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. In 1798 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, his proposers being Dugald Stewart, Alexander Keith and John Playfair. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London the following year.
He lived in London from 1809 and died in Rome in Italy on 29 March 1828.
In 1795 he was Member of Parliament for Saint Mawes, and in the elections of 1796 and 1801 was returned for Lostwithiel. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1799 These were both rotten boroughs in Cornwall.
He became sworn as a Privy Counsellor in 1801, and left Parliament as a diplomat, as Envoy to the court of Naples. In 1803 he became British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire.
Appointed by the Levant Company on 14 January 1803, he arrived at the Dardanelles the following May.
He was there for less than a year and then he returned to England in 1804. From 1806 to 1809 he served as Envoy to the Court of Naples for a second time. He was knighted in 1813 or 1814.
Academical Questions is a work in the Sceptic tradition, in this case influenced by the Sceptical Scottish philosopher David Hume.
These had been enunciated first in Reid"s An Enquiry into the Human Mind (1765). Drummond failed to unseat Reid"s ideas in popularity.
They remained dominant in English philosophy for the first half of the 19th century. According to Pulos, Drummond altered the poet Shelley"s beliefs.
He ceased being an 18th-century French materialist.
Shelley asserted that some passions (of the heart) are "innate.".
(The writings of William James represent one of America's ...)
(Lang:- English, Pages 547. Reprinted in 2013 with the hel...)
In contrast to other scholars he names, Pulos argues that Shelley was decisively influenced by Academical Questions, and under its influence confidently abandoned 18th-century French materialism.
Royal Society; 1st United Kingdom Parliament.