Benjamin Farrington: Cape Town and the Shaping of a Public Intellectual
| dc.contributor.author | Atkinson, John | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2018-05-30T07:31:40Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2018-05-30T07:31:40Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2010 | |
| dc.date.updated | 2016-01-13T08:47:27Z | |
| dc.description.abstract | Benjamin Farrington, an Irish Protestant, joined the University of Cape Town, Classics Department in 1920, and wrote articles for De Burger to win Afrikaner support for Sinn Fein and the Irish Republic. He was credited with initiating a conference in Paris in 1922, to launch the Irish World Organisation. Disillusioned by its stillbirth he effectively shut down the Irish Republican Association of South Africa and its newspaper, The Republic, which he had founded and edited. Prominent in the circle of Ruth Schechter, whom he later married, he engaged with the likes of Hogben and Bodmer. Disengaged from active politics by mid-1922, he emerged as a public intellectual in Marxist and Leninist/Trotskyist groupings. Inspired by Karl Marx's thesis on the Epicurean theory of atomism, he campaigned against determinism, and in particular against fundamentalist and superstitious attacks on experimental science. Thus in the classical context he presented Socrates' mix of disembodied mathematics, ethics and theology as a major block to Greek physical science long before Christianity. Farrington's scientific humanism is evidenced in his translations of the Africana texts of Ten Rhyne and Grevenbroek, and in his work on Vesalius. At UCT he advanced Classics from primarily language study to the broader study of history, science and culture. He could be labelled a public intellectual by virtue of his lectures to groups in the community, articles and reviews in the press, and publications for a general readership. But he took his model rather from Epicurus. | |
| dc.identifier | http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02582473.2010.519938 | |
| dc.identifier.apacitation | Atkinson, J. (2010). Benjamin Farrington: Cape Town and the Shaping of a Public Intellectual. <i>South African Historical Journal</i>, http://hdl.handle.net/11427/28188 | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.chicagocitation | Atkinson, John "Benjamin Farrington: Cape Town and the Shaping of a Public Intellectual." <i>South African Historical Journal</i> (2010) http://hdl.handle.net/11427/28188 | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.citation | Atkinson, J. (2010). Benjamin Farrington: Cape Town and the shaping of a public intellectual. South African Historical Journal, 62(4), 671-692. | |
| dc.identifier.ris | TY - AU - Atkinson, John AB - Benjamin Farrington, an Irish Protestant, joined the University of Cape Town, Classics Department in 1920, and wrote articles for De Burger to win Afrikaner support for Sinn Fein and the Irish Republic. He was credited with initiating a conference in Paris in 1922, to launch the Irish World Organisation. Disillusioned by its stillbirth he effectively shut down the Irish Republican Association of South Africa and its newspaper, The Republic, which he had founded and edited. Prominent in the circle of Ruth Schechter, whom he later married, he engaged with the likes of Hogben and Bodmer. Disengaged from active politics by mid-1922, he emerged as a public intellectual in Marxist and Leninist/Trotskyist groupings. Inspired by Karl Marx's thesis on the Epicurean theory of atomism, he campaigned against determinism, and in particular against fundamentalist and superstitious attacks on experimental science. Thus in the classical context he presented Socrates' mix of disembodied mathematics, ethics and theology as a major block to Greek physical science long before Christianity. Farrington's scientific humanism is evidenced in his translations of the Africana texts of Ten Rhyne and Grevenbroek, and in his work on Vesalius. At UCT he advanced Classics from primarily language study to the broader study of history, science and culture. He could be labelled a public intellectual by virtue of his lectures to groups in the community, articles and reviews in the press, and publications for a general readership. But he took his model rather from Epicurus. DA - 2010 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town J1 - South African Historical Journal LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2010 T1 - Benjamin Farrington: Cape Town and the Shaping of a Public Intellectual TI - Benjamin Farrington: Cape Town and the Shaping of a Public Intellectual UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/28188 ER - | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/28188 | |
| dc.identifier.vancouvercitation | Atkinson J. Benjamin Farrington: Cape Town and the Shaping of a Public Intellectual. South African Historical Journal. 2010; http://hdl.handle.net/11427/28188. | en_ZA |
| dc.language.iso | eng | |
| dc.publisher.department | School of Languages and Literatures | en_ZA |
| dc.publisher.faculty | Faculty of Humanities | en_ZA |
| dc.publisher.institution | University of Cape Town | |
| dc.source | South African Historical Journal | |
| dc.source.uri | http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02582473.2010.519938 | |
| dc.subject.other | Farrington | |
| dc.subject.other | University of Cape Town | |
| dc.subject.other | Irish Republican Association (SA) | |
| dc.subject.other | Epicurean atomism | |
| dc.subject.other | Leninist/Trotskyist | |
| dc.subject.other | Ruth Schechter | |
| dc.subject.other | public intellectual | |
| dc.title | Benjamin Farrington: Cape Town and the Shaping of a Public Intellectual | |
| dc.type | Journal Article | |
| uct.type.filetype | ||
| uct.type.filetype | Text | |
| uct.type.filetype | Image |