Dawes Hicks Papers

Scope and Content

Papers of George Dawes Hicks, 1880s-[1928] and undated, mainly comprising typescript and manuscript texts of his lectures at University College London on philosophical subjects including psychology, ethics, logic, metaphysics, Greek philosophy, Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Hegel, Spinoza, Lotze, Bradley, and modern philosophy; also including notebooks containing manuscript texts of the lectures on philosophy and psychology of Professor Robert Adamson, delivered at Owens College Manchester, 1886-1888, and at Glasgow, 1899-1900 (in boxes 2, 11, 13); printed and manuscript papers, 1880s-1890s, on educational issues, specifically the campaign to extend university teaching in London by establishing a teaching university, supported by University College London and King's College London, to secure a new charter for the University of London, and opposition to the campaign (in boxes 4, 17, 19, 20). Not all the lecture notes were originally made by Dawes Hicks himself.

Administrative / Biographical History

Born at Shrewsbury, 1862; moved with his family to Guildford, 1866; educated at the Royal Grammar School, Guildford; interested in natural science, but formed a desire to enter the Unitarian ministry and went to Owens College, Manchester, 1883; graduated in philosophy with first class honours, 1888; continued to study philosophy, at Manchester College Oxford and then at Leipzig; Hibbert Scholar, 1891-1896; graduated from Leipzig with a PhD, 1896; minister at Unity Church, Islington, 1897-1903; Lecturer for the London School of Ethics and Sociology, 1897-1898; Vice-President of the Aristotelian Society, 1901; Assistant Editor of the 'Hibbert Journal', 1902; LittD, Manchester, 1904; appointed to the Chair of Moral Philosophy at University College London, 1904; lived in Cambridge, travelling to London several times weekly, and also delivered some lectures in Cambridge; BA by research, Cambridge, 1909; MA, 1912; President of the Aristotelian Society, 1913; elected Fellow of the British Academy, 1927; retired his Professorship, 1928; Emeritus Professor from 1928; Hibbert Lecturer, 1931; Upton Lecturer in Philosophy, 1933; Essex Hall Lecturer, 1934; Hobhouse Memorial Lecturer, 1936; examiner in philosophy at various universities; a leading authority on the philosophers Immanuel Kant and George Berkeley, and on the history of philosophy, and worked on the theory of knowledge, eventually tending towards the realistic theory; died at Cambridge, 1941. Publications: 'Die Begriffe Phnomenon und Noumenon in ihrem Verhltnis zu einander bei Kant ' (1897); 'English Philosophy in the Nineteenth Century'; in Friedrich Ueberweg and Franz Friedrich Maximilian Heinze's 'Geschichte der Philosophie' (1897); memoir of James Drummond in Drummond's 'Pauline Meditations' (1919); 'Ways towards the Spiritual Life' (1928); article on theory of knowledge in 'Encyclopaedia Britannica' (14th edition, 1929); 'Berkeley', in Leaders of Philosophy series (1932); 'Human Personality and Future Life' (1934); 'Thought and Real Existence' (1936); 'The Philosophical Bases of Theism' (1937); 'Critical Realism: Studies in the Philosophy of Mind and Nature' (1938); various articles and reviews in 'Mind', the 'Proceedings' of the Aristotelian Society, 'Hibbert Journal', 'Journal of Psychology', and other periodicals.

Access Information

Permission Required

This collection is not yet catalogued and no list is available. Please contact Special Collections for further information.

Acquisition Information

Bequeathed to University College London by Dawes Hicks in 1941.

Other Finding Aids

This collection is uncatalogued.

Conditions Governing Use

Normal copyright restrictions apply.

Related Material

University College London Special Collections also holds papers relating to Dawes Hicks' application to University College London, 1903-1904 (Ref: COLLEGE CORRESPONDENCE APPLICATIONS); a letter to Dawes Hicks from L Susan Stebbing, 1931 (Ref: MS MISC 4S). University College London Records Office holds a Dawes Hicks Bequest file (Ref: 299/43 Parts 1 & 2, GO 463).