Haldane, Elizabeth S. (1862–1937)

Scottish philosopher and social worker. Born Elizabeth Sanderson Haldane on May 27, 1862; died on December 24, 1937; daughter of Robert Haldane and Mary Elizabeth Burdon-Sanderson ; granddaughter ofJames Alexander Haldane (1768–1851, a religious writer); sister of J(ohn) S(cott) Haldane (1860–1936, a physiologist and philosopher) and Richard Burdon, Viscount Haldane (1856–1928, a diplomat, lawyer, and philosopher); aunt of J(ohn) B(urdon) S(anderson) Haldane (1892–1964, a geneticist), Charlotte Haldane (1894–1969), and novelist Naomi Mitchison (1897–1999); educated by tutors at home; various appointments in social welfare and nursing; founded the Auchterarder Institute and Library; first woman to receive an honorary LL.D. from St. Andrew's University (1911).

Selected works:

(trans. with Frances Simon) Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy (3 vols.: 1892, 1894, 1896); (ed.) The Wisdom and Religion of a German Philosopher (1897); James Frederick Ferrier (1899); Descartes: His Life and Times (1905); (trans. with G.T.T. Ross) The Philosophical Works of Descartes (2 vols.: 1911–12); "Notes on a Criticism" in Mind (Vol. 22, 1913); British Nurse in Peace and War (1920); George Eliot and her Times (1927); Mrs. Gaskell and Her Friends (1930); From One Century to Another: the Reminiscences of Elizabeth S. Haldane (1937).

Elizabeth Haldane is unusual among contemporary women philosophers because she received her education from tutoring at home and through her own studies. Born to a wealthy Scottish family in 1862, Haldane grew to love the philosophy she learned from the tutors who educated her and her brothers. After studying nursing and working under Octavia Hill , she became vice-chair of territorial nursing service and was manager, for some years, of the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. Politically active as a lifelong liberal, she became the first woman justice of the peace in Scotland in 1920. While she is known for her nursing work and for having advanced the field of social welfare (she established and supported the Auchterarder Institute and Library), Haldane is particularly known for her contributions to philosophy. Despite her lack of university training, she published several biographies and translations of philosophy. Her translation with Frances Simon of Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy is still the standard. Her biography of Rene Descartes (Descartes: His Life and Times [1905]), the 17th-century mathematician also known as the father of modern philosophy, was probably responsible for her receiving, in 1911, the first honorary LL.D. given to a woman by St. Andrew's University.

sources:

Haldane, Elizabeth S. From One Century to Another: The Reminiscences of Elizabeth S. Haldane. London: A. Maclehose, 1937.

Kersey, Ethel M. Women Philosophers: a Bio-critical Source Book. NY: Greenwood Press, 1989.

Waithe, Mary Ellen, ed. A History of Women Philosophers. Boston: Martinus Nijhoff Publications, 1987–1995.

Catherine Hundleby , M.A., Philosophy, University of Guelph