Anna Forbes Liddell (1891 — 1979) bestudeerde Spinoza, maar dat wordt in diverse biografieën niet gemeld
Er is hier iets merkwaardigs aan de hand. Bijvoorbeeld op de webpagina van Florida Memory dat wordt bijgehouden door 't Department of State's Division of Library and Information Services, staat bij haar foto die dateert van februari 1969 het volgende biografietje:
_in_1969.jpg_%3bfilename_%3dUTF-8%27%27Anna_Forbes_Liddell%2520_(1891%25E)
Ze behaalde echter haar PH.D. niet in 1925, maar in 1924. Haar dissertatie staat juist vermeld in wikipedia en in de Duitse Spinozabibliografie, en luidde
Anna Forbes Liddell, The Logical Relationship of the Philosophy of Hegel to the Philosophies of Spinoza and Kant. Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina [diss.], 1924. Dit blijkt b.v. ook uit [cf. archive.org]
June 11, 1924; waarin het volgende voorkomt:
Een jaar later verspreidde de University of North Carolina in de reeks Studies in Philosophy, No. 2 van haar:
Anna Forbes Liddell, Alexander's
Space, Time and Deity. A Critical Consideration. z.j [1925]. In de Preface was sprake van “this thesis”. Misschien leidde dat tot de vergissing?
Robert Beard, Professor of Philosophy Florida State University, schreef in Proceedings and Addresses of the American
Philosophical Association, [Vol. 53, No.6 (Aug., 1980), pp. 858-859] de
volgende obituary voor haar:
Anna Forbes Liddell was well known to many members of the American Philosophical Association. Born on December 6, 1891 in Charlotte, North Carolina, she died on August 30, 1979 in Tallahassee, Florida. Florida. She received her A.B. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1918, her M.A. from Cornell, and her Ph.D. from Chapel Hill in 1925. She wrote for newspapers and magazines, was a professor of history and social philoso- phy at Chowan College in North Carolina, and came to Florida College for Women which is now the Florida State University in 1926 as an asso- ciate professor. From 1936 to 1947, she was Head of the Department of Philosophy and Religion. In 1959 she was named the first distinguished professor at Florida State University. Her dissertation, Alexander's Space, Time and Deity, was published in 1925, and subsequent articles and reviews were published in the Journal of Philosophy, The Personalist, and The Philosophical Review. She traveled extensively and presented papers at many professional meetings here and abroad. In 1930 she spent the year in Heidelberg where she became even more deeply interested in the philosophy of Nicholas of Cusa. She worked throughout her career on a translation of his translation of his De Docta Ignorantia.
She devoted much of her energy to gaining rights for women. In her teens she marched down Fifth Avenue with the suffragettes, in her nineties she testified before the Florida House of Representatives in support of the Equal Rights Amendment. She refused to be limited by social custom or expectations about what women should do and be. She once remarked, "In every position I have held, I was preceded by a man and I was followed by a man, so I guess you could say I can do a man's work." She had a marvelous sense of humor and was a delightful conversationalist. Her teaching was exceedingly effective due in no small measure to her wit. Even in her later years when she suffered such pain, her mind and wit were as sharp as ever. Though she was only four feet ten inches, she made a tremendous impression upon everyone she encountered. She was a warm, magnificent human being. Forbes lived a rich and full life, but she is missed by her friends and colleagues. [Robert Beard Professor of Philosophy Florida State University].
Nu zou je kunnen zeggen, ach een vergissing – kan gebeuren.
Maar deze werd de oorzaak van vele daaropvolgende foutieve mededelingen. Zo
vind je in de korte biografieën bij twee archieven van werk van haar deze
zelfde fout verspreid: cf. hier en hier, en zoals ik al liet zien, ook bij haar foto. Zelfs het uitvoerige lemma over haar geschreven door Barbara Elizabeth Lambert in:
William S. Powell (Ed.), Dictionary of North Carolina Biography [Vol. 4, L-O. Univ of North Carolina Press, 2000 - cf. books.google] dat een uitgebreid beeld geeft van haar activiteiten als publiciste en haar strijd voor vrouwenrechten, noemt haar dissertatie niet, alleen dat haar promotor Horace Williams was - geeft wel het juiste jaartal en het feit dat zij samen met nog een vrouw de eerste vrouwen ooit waren die een Ph.D. behaalden aan de University of North Carolina .
Enig werk van haar
Haar dissertatie is - voor zover ik kon nagaan – niet op internet geplaatst. Haar studie die foutief als haar dissertatie werd gezien, Alexander's Space, Time and Deity, z.j [1925], is wel op internet te vinden [cf.]. In een volgend blog laat ik daaruit zien hoe ze daarin over Spinoza schrijft.
In dit blog hoop ik een klein mysterie i.v.m. haar te hebben opgelost.
[Van hier PDF]
