The Via Christa: Library: John Burnet

Via Christa
» Library
» John Burnet

John Burnet

John Burnet (1863–1928) was a Scottish Classicist, a Fellow of the British Academy, educated at the University of Edinburgh, and Balliol College, Oxford, receiving his M.A. in 1887. From 1890 to 1915, he was a Fellow at Merton College, Oxford; he was a professor of Latin at Edinburgh; from 1892 to 1926, he was Professor of Greek at the University of St. Andrews. He became a Fellow of the British Academy in 1916. In 1909, Burnet was offered, but did not accept, the Chair of Greek at Harvard University.

John Burnet was born in Edinburgh on 9 December 1863 and died in St Andrews on 26 May 1928. The son of an advocate and the eldest of five children, he was educated at Edinburgh's Royal High School, the University of Edinburgh, and in 1883 went to Oxford (Balliol College), where he gained first classes in Classical Moderations and Literae Humaniores. The most profound scholarly influences on him in his early years were Richard Nettleship and Ingram Bywater; to Bywater he would later attribute his vocation to classical scholarship. He left Oxford in 1887 to take an appointment for a year as personal assistant to Lewis Campbell, the beginning of an association with the University of St Andrews that would last until his death. In 1892 he succeeded Campbell in the Greek Chair (he had been interim professor from 1891 to 1892). He held this post until retirement in 1926, though he was offered a chair at Harvard in 1909. In 1916 he was elected fellow of the British Academy. – Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

Burnet is best known for his work on Plato. He maintained that Socrates was closely connected to the early Greek philosophical tradition, now generally known as Pre-Socratic philosophy; Burnet believed that Socrates had been in his youth the disciple of Archelaus, a member of the Anaxagorean tradition. His Platonic Opera and philological work on Plato is still widely read, and his editions of Early Greek Philosophy have been considered authoritative for more than 100 years.

Selected Works by John Burnet

Early Greek Philosophy
» Read it here »

Fragments of Parmenides
» Read it here »

Platonism
» Read it here »

Plato’s Phaedo
» Read it here »

The Socratic Doctrine of the Soul
» Read it here »

Top ↑

John Burnet, M.A., LL.D
1863–1928
Scottish Classicist, Greek Scholar, Fellow of the British Academy, Fellow of Merton College, Oxford; Professor of Latin, Edinburgh, Professor of Greek, University of St. Andrews; Sather Professor of Classics, University of California, 1926.

References

Burnet, John. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. [Accessed January 20, 2020]

Burnet, John. Early Greek Philosophy, 2nd ed. London: A. and C. Black, 1908. This work is in the Public Domain.

Burnet, John. Platonism, Sather Classical Lectures, 1928, Vol. V. London: Berkeley, California: University of California Press 1928. This work is in the Public Domain.

Burnet, John. The Socratic Doctrine of the Soul, Second Annual Philosophical Lecture, Henriette Hertz Trust, Proceedings of the British Academy, Vol. VII. London: Oxford University Press, January 26, 1916. This work is in the Public Domain.

Plato; Burnet, John, Platonis Opera, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1900-1907. This work is in the Public Domain.

Copyright 2020-2023 by The Society of the Universal Living Christ. All titles published under "The Via Christa" are copyright protected. All Rights Reserved. You may not modify, publish, transmit, transfer or sell, reproduce, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, display, or in any way exploit any of the content, in whole or in part. No part of any book or paper herein may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from The Via Christa. Created January 20, 2020; modified October 26, 2023.