F. M. Cornford
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Born | Francis Macdonald Cornford (1874-02-27)27 February 1874
Eastbourne, England
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Died | 3 January 1943(1943-01-03) (aged 68)
Cambridge, England
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Alma mater | Trinity College, Cambridge |
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Discipline | Classics |
Institutions | Trinity College, Cambridge |
Notable students | W. K. C. Guthrie |
Francis Macdonald Cornford FBA (27 February 1874 – 3 January 1943) was an English classical scholar and translator known for work on ancient philosophy, notably Plato, Parmenides, Thucydides, and ancient Greek religion. Frances Cornford, his wife, was a noted poet. Due to the similarity in their names, he was known in the family as "FMC" and his wife as "FCC".[2]
Cornford was born in Eastbourne, Sussex, on 27 February 1874.[2] He attended St Paul's School, London.[2]
In 1909 Cornford married the poet Frances Darwin, daughter of Sir Francis Darwin and Ellen Wordsworth Darwin, née Crofts, and a granddaughter of Charles Darwin. They had five children:
Cornford was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was a Fellow from 1899 and held a teaching post from 1902.[5] He became the first Laurence Professor of Ancient Philosophy in 1931 and was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1937.[2] He used wit and satire to propagate proposals for reforming the teaching of the classics at Cambridge, in Microcosmographia Academica (1908).[2]
Cornford coined the phrase "twin pillars of Platonism", referring to the theory of Forms on the one hand, and, on the other the doctrine of immortality of the soul.[6]
He died on 3 January 1943 in his home, Conduit HeadinCambridge.[2] He was cremated at Cambridge Crematorium on 6 January 1943.[2]
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New office | Laurence Professor of Ancient Philosophy 1930–1939 |
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