Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson
Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson (6 August 1862 – 3 August 1932), known as Goldie,[1] was a British political scientist[2] and philosopher. He lived most of his life at Cambridge, where he wrote a dissertation on Neoplatonism before becoming a fellow. He was closely associated with the Bloomsbury Group.
Dickinson was deeply distressed by Britain's involvement in the
Life
Early years
Dickinson was born in London, the son of Lowes Cato Dickinson (1819–1908), a portrait painter, by his marriage to Margaret Ellen Williams, a daughter of William Smith Williams who was literary advisor to Smith, Elder & Company and had discovered Charlotte Brontë. When the boy was about one year old his family moved to the Spring Cottage in Hanwell, then a country village. The family also included his brother, Arthur, three years older, an older sister, May, and two younger sisters, Hester and Janet.
His education included attendance at a day school in Somerset Street, Portman Square, when he was ten or eleven. At about the age of twelve he was sent to Beomonds, a boarding school in Chertsey, and his teenage years from 14 to 19 were spent at Charterhouse School in Godalming, where his brother Arthur had preceded him. He was unhappy at Charterhouse, although he enjoyed seeing plays put on by visiting actors, and he played the violin in the school orchestra. While he was there, his family moved from Hanwell to a house behind All Souls Church in Langham Place.
In 1881 Dickinson went up to
After travelling in the Netherlands and Germany, Dickinson returned to Cambridge late that year and was elected to the Cambridge Conversazione Society, better known as the Cambridge Apostles. In a year or two he was part of the circle that included Roger Fry, J. M. E. McTaggart, and Nathaniel Wedd.
Career
In the summer of 1885 he worked at a co-operative farm, Craig Farm at
With financial help from his father, Dickinson then began to study for a medical degree, beginning in October 1886 at Cambridge. Although he became dissatisfied with his new subject and nearly decided to drop out, he persevered and passed his M.B. examinations in 1887 and 1888. Yet he finally decided he was not interested in a career in medicine.
In March 1887 a dissertation on Plotinus helped his election to a fellowship at King's College. During Roger Fry's last year at Cambridge (1887–1888), Dickinson, a homosexual,[8] fell in love with him. After an initially intense relationship (which according to Dickinson's biography did not include sex with Fry, a heterosexual), the two established a long friendship. Through Fry, Dickinson soon met Jack McTaggart and F. C. S. Schiller.
Dickinson then settled down at Cambridge, although he again lectured through the University Extension Scheme, travelling to Newcastle, Leicester, and Norwich. His fellowship at King's College (as an historian) was permanently renewed in 1896. That year his book The Greek View of Life was published. He later wrote a number of dialogues in the Socratic tradition.
Dickinson did not live the detached life of a stereotypical Cambridge academic. When G. K. Chesterton chose contemporary thinkers with whom he disagreed for his book Heretics (1905), the focus of Chapter 12 was "Paganism and Mr. Lowes Dickinson". There Chesterton writes:
Mr. Lowes Dickinson, the most pregnant and provocative of recent writers on this and similar subjects, is far too solid a man to have fallen into this old error of the mere anarchy of Paganism. To make hay of that Hellenic enthusiasm which has as its ideal mere appetite and egotism, it is not necessary to know much philosophy, but merely to know a little Greek. Mr. Lowes Dickinson knows a great deal of philosophy, and also a great deal of Greek, and his error, if error he has, is not that of the crude hedonist. But the contrast which he offers between Christianity and Paganism in the matter of moral ideals—a contrast which he states very ably in a paper called "How Long Halt Ye?" which appeared in the Independent Review—does, I think, contain an error of a deeper kind.
Dickinson was a lecturer in political science from 1886 to his retirement in 1920, and the college librarian from 1893 to 1896. Dickinson helped establish the Economics and Politics Tripos and taught political science within the University. For 15 years he also lectured at the London School of Economics.[9]
In 1897 he made his first trip to Greece, travelling with Nathaniel Wedd, Robin Mayor, and A. M. Daniel.
He joined the Society for Psychical Research in 1890, and served on its Council from 1904 to 1920.
In 1903 he helped to found the Independent Review.
First World War and after
Within a fortnight of the start of the
In the 1920s, Dickinson joined the
Death and legacy
After a prostate operation in 1932, Dickinson appeared to be recovering, but he died on 3 August. Memorial services were held in King's College Chapel, Cambridge, and in London.
E. M. Forster, by then a good friend, who had been influenced by Dickinson's books, accepted the appointment as Dickinson's literary executor. Dickinson's sisters then asked Forster to write their brother's biography, which was published as Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson in 1934. Forster has been criticised for refraining from publishing details of Dickinson's sexual proclivities, including his foot fetishism and unrequited love for young men.[12]
E. M. Forster stated (in "the Art of Fiction") that he used Dickinsons' sisters as his inspiration for Margaret and Helen Schlegel, the central characters in Howards End.
Works
- Revolution and Reaction in Modern France, 1892
- The Development of Parliament during the Nineteenth Century, 1895[13]
- The Greek View of Life, 1896, 1909
- Letters from John Chinaman and Other Essays, 1901
- The Meaning of Good: A Dialogue, 1901
- Letters from a Chinese Official; Being an Eastern View of Western Civilization, 1903 (published anonymously)
- Religion. A Criticism and a Forecast, 1905
- A Modern Symposium, 1905
- From King To King, 1907
- Justice and Liberty: A Political Dialogue, 1908
- Is Immortality Desirable?, 1909
- Religion and Immortality, 1911
- An Essay on the Civilisations of India, China & Japan, 1914
- Appearances; Being Notes of Travel, 1914
- After the War, 1915
- The European Anarchy, 1916
- The Choice Before Us, 1917
- The War and the Way Out, 1917[14]
- Causes of International War, 1920
- The Magic Flute: A Fantasia, 1920; Dickinson, Goldsworthy Lowes (1923). 1923 reprint.
- War: Its Nature, Cause and Cure, 1923
- The International Anarchy, 1904–1918, 1926[5]
- After Two Thousand Years: A Dialogue between Plato and a Modern Young Man, 1930
- Plato and His Dialogues, 1931
- J. McT. E. McTaggart, 1931, 'With chapters by S.V. Keeling' (Cambridge)[15]
- The Contribution of Ancient Greece to Modern Life, 1932
Posthumous:
- The Autobiography of G. Lowes Dickinson: and other unpublished writings, 1973, edited by Dennis Proctor, published by Duckworth, 287 pages, ISBN 0-7156-0647-6(hardcover)
References
- ISBN 9780300176452.
affectionately known as 'Goldie'
- ^ Forster, E. M., Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson, p. 80
- ISBN 978-1-108-48917-1.
- S2CID 143360196.
- ^ S2CID 147076161.
- ISBN 978-0-230-10173-9
- ^ "Dickinson, Goldsworthy Lowes (DKN881GL)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- David Halperin, One Hundred Years of Homosexuality, Routledge, 1990, 'Introduction', p. 2.
- ^ a b "The Papers of Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson", Janus, retrieved 27 February 2007
- ^ After the War (1915), p. 34
- ^ Cline, Catherine Ann (1963). Recruits to Labour. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press. p. 157.
- ^ "Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson", Literary Encyclopedia, retrieved 27 February 2007(subscription required)
- ISSN 0002-7162.
- ISSN 0707-5332.
- S2CID 170221955.
- E. M. Forster, (1934), "Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson", edited by L. G. Wickham Legg, London: Edward Arnold, 277 pages (hardcover)
- P. D. Proctor, (1949), pages 225–227 in "The Dictionary of National Biography 1931–1940", edited by L. G. Wickham Legg, London: Oxford University Press, 968 pages (hardcover)
Further reading
- Forster, E. M., and Ronald Edmond Balfour. Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson. London: E. Arnold & Co, 1934.
- Dickinson, G. Lowes. The Autobiography of G. Lowes Dickinson, and Other Unpublished Writings. [London]: Duckworth, 1973.
- Fry, Roger, and J. T. Sheppard. Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson, 6 August 1862, 3 August 1932: Fellow of the College, 1887–1932. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1933.
- Bollman, Dean Stanley. The Social and Political Philosophy of G. Lowes Dickinson. Thesis (M.A.), University of Washington, 1921.
- Santayana, George. 'Lowes Dickinson'. Selected Critical Writings of George Santayana, ed. N. Henfrey, Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1968, I, 324–5.
External links
- Works by or about Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson at Wikisource
- Media related to Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson at Wikimedia Commons
- Works by Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson at Internet Archive
- Works by Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- "Archival material relating to Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson". UK National Archives.
- Portraits of Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson at the National Portrait Gallery, London