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{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
{{Infobox scientist
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▲|nationality = [[Scottish_people|Scottish]]
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▲|alma_mater = [[Marischal College]]
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▲|known_for =
▲|relatives = Thomas Blackwell (father), Christian Johnston (mother), Alexander Blackwell (brother)
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▲|spouse = Barbara Black
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'''Thomas Blackwell''' the younger (4 August 1701
==Life==
He was born on 4 August 1701 in the city of Aberdeen, son of [[Thomas Blackwell (principal)|Rev Dr Thomas Blackwell]] (1660–1728), ministers of the [[Kirk of St Nicholas]] in Aberdeen and later Principal of [[Marischal College]]<ref>Fordyce, Alexander Dingwall (1885). "Blackwell (Thomas, LL.D.)." In: [https://archive.org/stream/cihm_05793#page/n5/mode/2up ''Family Record of the Name of Dingwall Fordyce in Aberdeenshire'']. Toronto: C. Blackett Robinson, p. 21.</ref> and his wife Christian Johnston (d.1749). His father was Patron of the [[Seven Incorporated Trades of Aberdeen]] from 1714 to 1728.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://seventradesofaberdeen.co.uk/patrons-over-the-years/|title=Patrons – Seven Incorporated Trades of Aberdeen | Craftsmen in Aberdeen, Scotland.|website=seventradesofaberdeen.co.uk}}</ref>
He was born on 4 August 1701 in the city of Aberdeen, son of Rev. Thomas Blackwell (?1660-1728), one of the ministers of Aberdeen.<ref>Fordyce, Alexander Dingwall (1885). "Blackwell (Thomas, LL.D.)," in [https://archive.org/stream/cihm_05793#page/n5/mode/2up ''Family Record of the Name of Dingwall Fordyce in Aberdeenshire'']. Toronto: C. Blackett Robinson, p. 21.</ref> He attended the Grammar School of Aberdeen and studied Greek and philosophy at [[Marischal College]], graduating M.A. in 1718. He was presented to the chair of Greek at Marischal in 1723<ref>From 1723 to 1757.</ref>, becoming the college’s principal in October 7, 1748<ref>From 1748 to 1757.</ref><ref>Fordyce (1885), p. 21.</ref><ref>He became LL.D. in 1752. — See "Blackwell (Thomas)," in ''A New General Biographical Dictionary'', Vol. 4. B. Fellowes, 1853, p. 272.</ref> Blackwell was a well regarded professor<ref>"As in learning and knowledge he was exquisite and equal to any, so in the address of a teacher he was perhaps superior to all. No man ever possessed, in a more eminent degree the talent of inspiring young minds with a love of learning; of begetting among them a generous emulation; and of forming them to a taste and perception of what was elegant and beautiful in the admired productions of antiquity." — Gerard, Alexander (1807). "A Character of Dr. Thomas Blackwell," in ''Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the Honourable Henry Home of Kames'', by Alexander Fraser Tytler, Vol. I, Appendix No. VII. Edinburgh: William Creech, p. 49.</ref> and taught a number of important Enlightenment figures including Principal George Campbell, Robert Chambers, Dr [[Alexander Gerard]], and Dr. [[James Beattie (writer)|James Beattie]],<ref>Feldman, Burton (1972). "Thomas Blackwell, 1701–1757," in ''The Rise of Modern Mythology, 1680-1860''. Indiana University Press, p. 102.</ref> He strongly influenced [[James Macpherson]], the godfather as it were of [[Ossian]], and [[Adam Ferguson]].▼
▲
In May 1751, he married Barbara Black, third daughter of James Black, Dean of Guild of Aberdeen, and his wife Agnes Fordyce, daughter of Provost George Fordyce.<ref>Fordyce (1885), p. 20.</ref> They had no children.<ref>Fordyce (1885), p. 23.</ref> Thomas Blackwell died of a consumptive illness in [[Edinburgh]] on 6 March 1757. His remains were buried in [[Greyfriars Churchyard]].<ref>Fordyce (1885), p. 23.</ref> ▼
▲In May 1751, he married Barbara Black, third daughter of James Black, Dean of Guild of Aberdeen, and his wife Agnes Fordyce, daughter of Provost George Fordyce.<ref>Fordyce (1885), p. 20.</ref> They had no children
==Major Works==▼
Blackwell's works, including ''An Enquiry into the Life and Writings of [[Homer]]'' (1735),<ref>Parts of this book were translated into German by J.J. Bodmer in 1743, and into French by Quatremère de Roissy in 1801: ''Recherches sur Homère''.</ref> ''Letters Concerning [[Mythology]]'' (1748)<ref>Translated into French in 1779: ''Lettres sur la Mythologie''.</ref>, and ''Memoirs of the Court of [[Augustus]]'' (3 vols., 1753–63),<ref>Translated into French in 1757 by Feutry and again in 1799 by Quatremère de Roissy: ''Mémoires de la Cour d'Auguste''.</ref> established him as one of the premier figures in the [[Scottish Enlightenment]].▼
▲Blackwell's works, including ''An Enquiry into the Life and Writings of [[Homer]]'' (1735),<ref>Parts of this book were translated into German by J.J. Bodmer in 1743, and into French by Quatremère de Roissy in 1801: ''Recherches sur Homère''.</ref> ''Letters Concerning [[Mythology]]'' (1748),<ref>Translated into French in 1779: ''Lettres sur la Mythologie''.</ref>
===''Enquiry''===
In the ''Enquiry'' Blackwell considered why Homer was supreme as an epic poet and concluded that this was owing almost entirely to natural forces.<ref>"In 1735 Thomas Blackwell, Professor of Greek at Aberdeen, had published his ''Inquiry into the Life and Writings of Homer''. It made a considerable impression both at home and abroad, because it hit the mind of the age by tracing Homer's excellence to the happy concurrence of natural conditions."
Civilisation brought advances in material terms but also artificiality and corruption and a loss of the heroic vision of earlier periods.
''Enquiry'' had a high reputation with Blackwell's contemporaries<ref>"Blackwell's ''Enquiry'' was one of the most influential works of eighteenth-century classical philology, an inspiration not only to British scholars but to intellectuals in other countries, principally Germany, as well."—Bauman, Richard & Charles L. Briggs (2003). ''Voices of Modernity: Language Ideologies and the Politics of Inequality''. Cambridge University Press, p. 90.</ref> ([[Gibbon,
===''Letters Concerning Mythology''===
As the ''Letters Concerning Mythology'' were first published in 1748 there were nineteen letters in all, the first six by an anonymous hand. Blackwell was responsible for letters seven to nineteen. Their content was as bold and original as the book on Homer had been. Classical mythology had been discussed throughout the Christian era from a variety of unsympathetic standpoints: firstly by [[Euhemeristic]] critics who saw it as a fanciful form of history; next by Christian commentators who treated the classical gods as thinly-disguised [[demon]]s; and finally by modern rationalists who saw the system as ultimately irrational and meaningless. Blackwell took a radically different view. He saw mythology as a deeply civilising influence, which, if its allegorical intention were interpreted sympathetically, was an important key to the world-view of classical antiquity.
Ordinary people may have accepted the stories of the gods at face value, but the intelligentsia had regarded
Blackwell compared the early Jewish world view with contemporary Near Eastern cosmographies, analysing the account of creation in the [[Book of Genesis]] along with ancient Phoenician texts transmitted through [[Sanchuniathon]] to trace the transformation of [[Chaldea]]n monotheism into polytheism as the stars began to be worshiped as lesser deities. Throughout this wide-ranging study Blackwell insisted that the past was not a foreign country but perfectly coherent and intelligible when viewed in its own terms.
===''Memoirs of the Court of Augustus'' (1753–63)===
[[File:Memoirs of the Court of Augustus, Vol. 3, 1763.jpg|thumb|250px|upright|''Memoirs of the Court of Augustus,'' Vol. 3, 1763]]
In ''Memoirs of the Court of Augustus'' (3 vols., 1753–63), Blackwell approached his subject as a practitioner of intellectual history, calling it
But insufficient separation of powers meant that if the republican impulse faltered there was little to prevent a slide into tyranny. A balanced constitution was therefore essential to enduring political success, a lesson reinforced by his comparative studies of later great powers including France, Venice and the Spanish Empire. Politics and empire formed only a part of this wide-ranging study. The ability of power to mould behaviour patterns fascinated Blackwell, and his study of [[Virgil]] and [[Horace]] demonstrated the responsiveness of the arts to their political context and explored how they might influence it in turn.
After Blackwell's death [[John Mills (encyclopedist)|John Mills]] continued and completed the third volume of ''Memoirs of the Court of Augustus'', which was published in 1763.<ref>''The Critical Review: Or, Annals of Literature'', Vol. 15, W. Simpkin and R. Marshall, 1763.</ref>
==Comparison with Hippolyte Taine==
In a set of articles, published in 1897 by distinguished Brazilian scholar [[Araripe Júnior|Tristão de Alencar Araripe Júnior]],<ref>The first article was originally published in ''Revista do Brasil'', Ano I, No. 3, September 1897, pp. 73–76; the conclusion, in the following issue of the magazine, No. 4, 31 October 1897, pp. 94–98.</ref> Blackwell was credited with being a precursor of [[Hippolyte Taine|Taine]]'s ideas concerning the contextual study of works of art.<ref>Araripe Júnior (1963). "Um Precursor de Taine." In: ''Obra Crítica de Araripe Júnior'', Vol. III, 1895–1900. Rio de Janeiro: Ministério da Educação e Cultura/Casa de Rui Barbosa, pp. 249–256.</ref> "There was,... in the last century, a Scottish critic who innovatively applied to Homer the same processes of the master of modern criticism," [[Araripe Júnior]] wrote:
<blockquote>And what is more surprising, he did it before Montesquieu<ref>Montesquieu (1748). ''De l'Esprit des Loix ou du Rapport que les Loix Doivent Avoir avec la Constitution de Chaque Gouvernement, les Moeurs, le Climat, la Religion, le Commerce''. Geneve: Barrillot & Fils.</ref> had put into circulation his theory on the influence of climate upon the laws and, therefore, upon all human social relations... This work [''Enquiry''] follows the same mental scheme used by Taine, except for the naturalistic technique. Blackwell does not speak of mesology; but, as the book goes on, we see that none of the factors identified by the French critic escaped his observation and analysis.</blockquote>
Blackwell's theory of the formative effects of climate<ref>"It's essential at the outset to understand the meaning of climate in the eighteenth century. It does not have its meteorological denotation; instead, Johnson defines it as 'A space upon the surface of the Earth, measured from the Equator to the polar circles in each of which spaces the longest day is half-an-hour longer' (Dictionary, 10th E. [London, 1792]). Cf. the 1771 Encyclopædia Britannica: climate is "a space upon the terrestrial globe."—Berry, Christopher J. (1974). "'Climate' in the Eighteenth Century: James Dunbar and the Scottish Case," ''Texas Studies in Literature and Language'' '''16''', No. 2, p. 281.</ref> on our character and culture<ref>"In the division, commonly made of climates, the rough and cold are observed to produce the strongest bodies, and most martial spirits; the hotter, lazy bodies with cunning and obstinate passions; but the temperate regions, lying under the benign influences of a genial sky, have the best chance for a fine perception, and a proportioned eloquence. Good sense is indeed said to be a product of every country, and I believe it is; but the richest growths, and fairest shoots of it, spring, like other plants, from the happiest exposition and most friendly soil."—Blackwell (1735), p. 5.</ref> greatly impressed and influenced [[Johann Gottfried Herder]],<ref>Norton, Robert Edward (1991). ''Herder's Aesthetics and the European Enlightenment''. Cornell University Press, p. 60.</ref> and it's well known today how [[Hippolyte Taine|Taine]] drew heavily on the German philosopher's ideas.<ref>"Taine's indebtedness to Herder has not yet fully been recognized. Every element of Taine's theory is containd in Herder's writings."—Koller, Armin H. (1912). "Johann Gottfried Herder and Hippolyte Taine: Their Theories of Milieu," ''PMLA'' '''27''', p. xxxix.</ref><ref>Hoyrup, Jens (2000). ''Human Sciences: Reappraising the Humanities Through History and Philosophy''. SUNY Press, p. 157.</ref><ref>Sternhell, Zeev (2004). "Fascism: Reflections on the Fate of Ideas in Twentieth-Century History." In: Michael Freeden, Ed., ''Reassessing Political Ideologies: The Durability of Dissent''. Routledge, pp. 92–115.</ref><ref>Evans, Brad (2005). ''Before Cultures''. University of Chicago Press, p. 90.
</ref>
==Legacy==
==See also==
* [[Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu|Montesquieu]]
* [[Jean-Baptiste Dubos]]
* [[Johann Joachim Winckelmann]]
==Publications==
* (1735). ''An Enquiry into the Life and Writings of Homer''.
* (1746). ''The Dangers of the Rebellion, and our Happy Deliverance, Considered, and a Suitable Consequent Behaviour Recommended''.
* (1747). ''Proofs of the Enquiry into the Life and Writings of Homer''.
* (1748). ''Letters Concerning Mythology''.
* (
* (1770). [https://archive.org/stream/archaeologiaormi01sociuoft#page/332/mode/2up Letter to J. Ames], ''Archæologia, or, Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Antiquity '', Vol. I, p.
==References==
{{
==Further reading==
* {{Eminent Scotsmen|Blackwell, Thomas|1|244-46}}
* Macmillan, Duncan (2004). "French Art and the Scottish Enlightenment," in ''Scotland and France in the Enlightenment''. Bucknell University Press, pp. 128–160.▼
* Coltharp, Duane (1995). "History and the Primitive: Homer, Blackwell, and the Scottish Enlightenment," ''Eighteenth-Century Life'' '''19''', pp. 57–69
* Foerster, Donald Madison (1947). [http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015020627520;view=1up;seq=38 "Thomas Blackwell."] In: ''Homer in English Criticism: The Historical Approach in the Eighteenth Century''. New Haven: Yale University Press, pp. 26–40.
* Guérard, Albert Léon (1935). "The Background of Literature: Race, Environment and Time." In: ''Literature and Society''. Boston: Lothrop, Lee and Shepard Company.
▲* Macmillan, Duncan (2004). "French Art and the Scottish Enlightenment," in ''Scotland and France in the Enlightenment''. Bucknell University Press, pp.
* Reill, Peter Hanns (1975). "Structure of Development and Appreciation of the Unique." In: ''The German Enlightenment and the Rise of Historicism''. University of California Press, pp. 190–212.
* Whitney, Lois (1926). "Thomas Blackwell, a Disciple of Shaftesbury," ''Philological Quarterly'' '''5''', pp. 196f211.
* Wood, Paul B. (1993). ''The Aberdeen Enlightenment: The Arts Curriculum in the Eighteenth Century''. Aberdeen University Press.
*{{DNB Cite|wstitle=Blackwell, Thomas (1701-1757)}}
*{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Blackwell, Thomas|volume=4|page=27}}
==External links==
{{Commons category}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Thomas Blackwell |birth=1701 |death=1757 |sopt=t}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blackwell, Thomas}}
[[Category:Homeric
[[Category:Mythographers]]
[[Category:People of the Scottish Enlightenment]]▼
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[[Category:1757 deaths]]▼
[[Category:Scottish classical scholars]]
[[Category:18th-century Scottish historians]]
[[Category:People from Aberdeen]]▼
[[Category:People educated at Aberdeen Grammar School]]▼
[[Category:Alumni of the University of Aberdeen]]
[[Category:Academics of the University of Aberdeen]]
[[Category:Principals of the University of Aberdeen]]
▲[[Category:People educated at Aberdeen Grammar School]]
▲[[Category:People of the Scottish Enlightenment]]
▲[[Category:1701 births]]
▲[[Category:1757 deaths]]
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