The Lincolnshire Open Research and Innovation Centre (LORIC) is working in collaboration with the John Macmurray Fellowship on a Research England funded on an archive digitisation project
The John Macmurray Fellowship is dedicated to exploring the work of the 20th century British philosopher John Macmurray (1891-1976), and aims to make more widely known his writings and philosophy, and to bring together for study and discussion those who are interested in his life and work.
They describe Macmurray as being interested in understanding what it means to be a person and as having a gift for writing with simplicity whilst at the same time offering sharp conceptual analysis. Their view is that his writing offers a wholly new perspective on the human condition and his thinking is relevant to the problems we face as a world today.
The Fellowship has an archive of records including newsletters, conference papers, and newspaper articles dating back to 1993 when it was formed and this is now being transferred into a digital catalogue using digitisation equipment at the Lincolnshire Open Research and Innovation Centre.
The Fellowship hopes to make the archive available online as soon as possible after the digitisation project has been completed.
Dr Julian Stern, Professor of Education and Religion at Bishop Grosseteste University and Secretary of the John Macmurray Fellowship, describes the archive as a fascinating collection of materials about Macmurray’s philosophy and its importance to contemporary society:
He said: “Macmurray taught and influenced two UK political leaders, Hugh Gaitskell (Leader of the Labour Party 1955-1963) and Tony Blair (Prime Minister 1997-2007), with Blair quoted as saying ‘if you really want to understand what I’m all about, you have to take a look at a guy called John Macmurray – it’s all there’. (Materials in the archive suggest that although Blair did refer to the importance of communities, as also stressed by Macmurray, they might have disagreed on more than they agreed.)
“Conferences and seminars on Macmurray have been held by the Fellowship since 1993, and some leading voices in philosophy, politics, theology, education, psychology and history (amongst others) have discussed his work. Most of these papers are held in the archive, along with newsletters of the Fellowship, and materials from Macmurray himself.
“I have been Secretary of the John Macmurray Fellowship for several years now, and hold the archive and the library (books by and about Macmurray) in my university office. It will be wonderful to make the archive available through this digitisation project.”
For more information in the John Macmurrary Fellowship, please visit: http://johnmacmurray.org/