Norman Kemp Smith

Norman Kemp Smith FRSE (1872 – 3 September 1958) was a Scottish philosopher who was Professor of Psychology (1906–14) and Philosophy (1914-19) at Princeton University and was Professor of Logic and Metaphysics at the University of Edinburgh (1919–45). Born Norman Smith in Dundee, he added his wife's last name when he married Amy Kemp in 1910. He is noted for his English translation of Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason.

Career

Kemp Smith received his doctorate in 1902 from the University of St. Andrews. He lectured in philosophy and psychology at Princeton from 1906 to 1916, and at Edinburgh from 1919 until his retirement in 1945. He is best known for his English translation of Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, published in 1929 and often used as the standard English version of the text. His commentaries on the Critique are also well regarded, as are his works on David Hume and other philosophers. He was president of the Aristotelian Society from 1947 to 1948. A portrait by the Edinburgh artist Adam Bruce Thomson is held by the University of Edinburgh's Fine Art Collection.

Books and articles

• Studies in the Cartesian Philosophy (New York: Macmillan, 1902)
• "The Naturalism of Hume (I)" and "The Naturalism of Hume (II)", Mind, 14 (1905) Nos. 54 and 55: 149–73 and 335–47
• "Subjectivism and Realism in Modern Philosophy", The Philosophical Review, 17 (1908) No. 2: 138–48
• "How Far Is Agreement Possible in Philosophy?", The Journal of Philosophy, Psychology, and Scientific Methods, 9 (1912) No. 26: 701–11
• "Kant’s Relation to Hume and Leibniz", The Philosophical Review, 24 (1915) No. 3: 288–96
• A Commentary to Kant’s 'Critique of Pure Reason' (London: Macmillan, 1918)
• Prolegomena to an Idealist Theory of Knowledge (London: Macmillan, 1924)
• The Philosophy of David Hume: A Critical Study of Its Origins and Central Doctrines (London: Macmillan, 1941)
• New Studies in the Philosophy of Descartes (1951)

Further reading

• Loeb, Louis E. (2009). What is Worth Preserving in the Kemp Smith Interpretation of Hume? British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 17(4), 769–797.

External links

• Profile of Kemp Smith on the Edinburgh University Philosophy Department site
• Works by Norman Kemp Smith at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Norman Kemp Smith at Internet Archive
• Online edition of Kemp Smith's translation of the Critique of Pure Reason