Charles Arthur Campbell

Professor of Logic and Rhetoric, University of Glasgow

On Selfhood and Godhood

In his series of lectures, C.A. Campbell lays the foundation for the practice of natural theology within a rationalist framework. He defines the self as a moral agent, demonstrating the implicitly reasonable grounds for theological language regarding the soul. He moves on to investigate the possibility of an objectively verifiable theism, building parallels between moral and religious systems and creating a more traditional philosophical vocabulary.

Biography

Charles Arthur Campbell was born on 3 January 1897 in Glasgow. A Scottish metaphysical philosopher, he is associated with British Idealism and espoused the concept of free will. Serving as an officer during the First World War, he was medically discharged in 1917. He became Assistant Lecturer of Moral Philosophy in 1924 at the University of Glasgow and then in 1932, Professor of Philosophy at the University College of North Wales, Bangor. He was appointed Professor of Logic and Rhetoric at Glasgow, leaving in 1961 to serve as Dean of Faculties, retiring in 1966.  

Campbell considered his work on human cognition and its relationship to a ‘suprarational’, non-physical reality to be of equal importance to his discussion of free will. Though heavily influenced by F.H. Bradley, he diverged in his support of metaphysical pluralism, the belief that the world is made of many independently real things. Important works include Scepticism and Construction: Bradley’s Sceptical Principle as the Basis of Constructive Philosophy (1931), Moral Intuition and the Principle of Self-Realization (1952), and Is ‘Free-Will’ a Pseudo-Problem? (1967).

Published/Archival Resources
Published as On Selfhood and Godhood.